Putin: “It was they who started the war in 2014

PUTIN: “It was they who started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war. And we did not start this war in 2022. This is an attempt to stop it.”

Putin identifies the coup, or overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014, as the initial provocation that sparked the conflict.

“CIA did its job to complete the coup... But the political mistake was colossal.”

“We did not agree to NATO’s expansion, and moreover, we never agreed that Ukraine would be in NATO.”