Putin: Ukraine war a 'great tragedy' resulting from Western desires
4 Min Read
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia and Ukraine, despite the hostilities, remain one people, making the 'great tragedy' in Ukraine nothing more than a 'civil war' funded by the West for geopolitical gains.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends his annual news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, December 14, 2023. (AP)
Normal relations between Ukraine and Russia have been made impossible in the post-2014 coup, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, stressing that Russia had attempted to establish them "at any cost," given that the people of Ukraine and Russia are one people despite all current hostilities.
Putin spoke during a live marathon presser, on Thursday, and responded to a series of questions among which was whether he perceived a possible normalization of ties between the West and Russia in the near future.
To that end, Putin explained that Russia had aimed to maintain good relations with as many nations as possible and has never intentionally ruined or severed ties with any, however, the West continuously tried to isolate Russia and neglect its national interests.
These Western plots culminated in the 2014 coup d'etat in Ukraine which he claimed was staged by Russia's geopolitical "opponents."
Civil war between brothers
According to Putin the coup back then is what led to the current conflict which he considered to be a "great tragedy".
The war in Ukraine, said Putin, is a "civil war" between brothers, explaining that good relations between Moscow and southeast Ukraine are historic, and the leadership there has always tended to be pro-Russian.
However, "after the coup d’etat of 2014, it became clear to us that we would no longer be allowed, by force, to build any sort of normal relations with Ukraine," Putin said.
Putin even reminded that the US, at the time, had publicly confessed to spending $5 billion to overthrow the Russian-friendly Ukrainian government and explained that such US interests came in parallel with NATO’s"uncontrollable desire to creep towards our borders".
NATO sought to achieve that by promising Ukraine a warm welcome to the bloc under specific circumstances thus triggering the 8-year-long bloodbath in Donbass. All this was crowned with the current tragedy in Ukraine, because otherwise, "how are we supposed to build relations with them?"
The Russian President noted that the West has continued to act as if it has no recollection of doing any of the things mentioned above, and only occasionally confessing that it signed the Minsk Accords with its fingers crossed behind its backs, hoping to "give Ukraine time."
Notably, Putin proclaimed that "[The West] has largely lost its sovereignty," and warned Western nations, that with the exception of Hungary, their decisions regarding the tragedy in Ukraine and their choice to isolate Russia continue to only hurt themselves.
Biden pledges another $200mln to Kiev despite Republican opposition
In a related context, US President Joe Biden has pledged to send an additional $200 million in aid to Ukraine, as discussed in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.
This comes after Congress Republicans blocked a bill to send military aid worth almost $60 billion to Kiev. Republicans are ever-more openly rejecting the need to fund Ukraine, saying that President Joe Biden needs to devote more attention to domestic security, particularly to stopping illegal migration over the US-Mexican border.
Conservatives insisted on linking their approval of the package for these close foreign allies to Democrats and the White House agreeing to comprehensive immigration reforms.
However, it is worth noting that Biden's allocation of $200 million in aid does not rely on Congress' approval, instead, the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) will be supplying Kiev with US stock weaponry for the 44th time since the war began.
The package includes air defense system munition, ammo for high mobility artillery rocket systems, mine clearing equipment, tank ammo, additional artillery, missiles, anti-armor rockets, vehicles and water trailers, more than 12 million small arms ammunition and grenades, demolition munitions, and finally, spare parts for maintenance equipment.
Read more: Scholz accused of 'financial trickery' in plan for 2024 Ukraine aid
