The Russian president has long framed his decision to launch an invasion of Ukraine as a response to Kyiv's growing diplomatic and security ties with the West. Last week, he hinted that his aim in Ukraine is the restoration of Russia as an imperial power.
Putin claims Russia 'forced' into the conflict in Ukraine
Speaking about his war on Ukraine on Friday, Putin went straight to his propaganda playbook, claiming Russia was "forced" into the conflict.
He called the invasion "the decision of a sovereign country that has an unconditional right … to defend its security."
"A decision aimed at protecting our citizens, residents of the People's Republics of Donbas, who for eight years were subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime and neo-Nazis who received the full protection of the West," he said.
The two areas the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) fell under the control of Russia-backed separatists in 2014.
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The Kremlin has accused Ukrainian authorities of discriminating against ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in the regions, a charge Kyiv has denied. Starting 2019, Russian passports were offered to the residents of the two entities.
Finally, in late February, Putin announced he would recognize them as independent, a move that was seen as the opening salvo of the war.
He said on Friday that Russian soldiers and the separatists were "fighting to defend their people" in the Donbas and the right to "reject any attempt to impose pseudo values of dehumanization and moral degradation from outside."
No country other than Russia recognizes the two as independent. Ukraine and the rest of the international community considers the territories to be under Russian occupation.
The European Commission announced Friday that it was recommending Ukraine and neighboring Moldova as EU candidate states, with the commission's chief Ursula von der Leyen saying that Ukrainians are "ready to die" for the European perspective.
Speaking about the European Union on Friday, Putin said the bloc had "lost its sovereignty."
“The European Union has fully lost its sovereignty, and its elites are dancing to someone else's tune, harming their own population. Europeans' and European businesses' real interests are totally ignored and swept aside," he said.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/europe/russia-president-vladimir-putin-speech-spief-intl/index.html