Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine, but Kyiv and its Western supporters have refused to join talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Putin also said that Russia is moving in the “right direction” regarding Ukraine as the Western countries, led by the United States, are trying to divide Russia.
Putin said Russia was acting in the “right direction” in Ukraine because the West, led by the United States, was trying to cleave Russia apart. Washington denies it is plotting Russia’s collapse.
“I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens,” Putin said.
Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous level, Putin said: “I don’t think it’s so dangerous.”
Putin said the West had begun the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 by toppling a pro-Russian president in the Maidan Revolution protests.
Soon after that revolution, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting Ukraine’s armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
“Actually, the fundamental thing here is the policy of our geopolitical opponents which is aimed at pulling apart Russia, historical Russia,” Putin said.
Putin casts what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine as a watershed moment when Moscow finally stood up to a Western bloc he says has been seeking to destroy Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for what they cast as an imperial-style war of occupation that has sown suffering and death across Ukraine.
Putin described Russia as a “unique country” and said the vast majority of its people were united in wanting to defend it.
“As for the main part — the 99.9% of our citizens, our people who are ready to give everything for the interests of the Motherland — there is nothing unusual for me here,” Putin said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year created the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. This is also the biggest conflict between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
