Putin came up with a new justification for the war in Ukraine
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said that Russia had no choice but to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He also added that it should have been done before February 2022.
This is stated in the report of the Institute for the Study of War, which was published on Sunday, December 22.
Putin names new reasons for the war in Ukraine
According to ISW, in an interview with Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin gave new reasons for launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He said that he had to violate the ceasefire he imposed on Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 by launching a full-scale invasion even earlier than February 2022. The Kremlin dictator also said that Russia should have launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine before February 2022.
Putin accused Ukraine and the West of "misleading" Russia. This refers to the alleged failure to fulfill the Minsk agreements.
"It should be noted that the second Minsk agreements were extremely favorable to Russia, without imposing any obligations on Moscow, which was a party to the negotiations. The agreements established a "ceasefire" that Russian proxies constantly violated with Russian support," noted the Institute for the Study of War.
The Russian president said that Russia should have chosen the right moment to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, rather than "waiting for the moment when nothing could be done". According to him, the Minsk agreements gave the West time to prepare Ukraine for future "military actions" against Russia.
"Putin did not mention that Ukraine was working to strengthen its army as a defensive response to Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territory in 2014 and the outbreak of war in the east of the country," the analysts said.
As a reminder, Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted sharply to Orban 's talks with Putin. The Ukrainian president said that the Hungarian prime minister has no official mandate to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has said that the government in Ukraine is allegedly illegitimate. The only exception for him is the Verkhovna Rada. Therefore, Russia will only talk to Volodymyr Zelenskyy if he goes to the polls and gains "legitimacy".