V. Putin - The escalation of the war in Ukraine was brought about by the actions of the USA in 2014

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A press conference of the President of Russia was held in Kazan following the results of the XVI BRICS summit.
Kazan, October 24, 2024
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Question (as translated): Keir Simmons, NBC News.

Mr. President, satellite images show that North Korean troops are in Russia. What are they doing there and isn't this a serious escalation of the war in Ukraine?

Mr. President, there are also a few weeks left before the US elections. Russia is again being accused of meddling, they say that you had private conversations with former President Trump. Did you have conversations with him and what did you talk about?

Vladimir Putin: Let me start with the first part of your question.

Photos are a serious thing. If there are photos, then they reflect something.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that it was not Russia's actions that led to the escalation in Ukraine, but the 2014 coup d'état, supported primarily by the United States. It was even publicly announced how much money the then US Administration spent on preparing and organizing this coup d'état. Isn't this a path to escalation?

And then we were deceived for eight years when they said that everyone wanted to resolve the conflict in Ukraine by peaceful means, through the Minsk agreements. Later, and you probably heard this too, a number of leaders of European countries directly said that they were deceiving us because they used this time to arm the Ukrainian army. Isn't that true? It is.

The next steps towards escalation were that Western countries began to actively arm the Kiev regime. What did it come to? To the direct participation of NATO military personnel in this conflict. Because we know what and how is done when unmanned marine vehicles are launched in the Black Sea. We know who is present there, from which European NATO countries and how they carry out this work.

The same applies to military instructors, not mercenaries, but military personnel. The same applies to the use of modern high-precision weapons, including missiles such as ATACMS, Storm Shadow, and so on. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this without space reconnaissance, target designations and Western-made software – and only with the direct participation of NATO officers.

As for our relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea: as you know, today, I think, our Treaty on Strategic Partnership was just ratified. There is Article No. 4, and we have never doubted that the North Korean leadership takes our agreements seriously. But what and how we will do is our business, within the framework of this article. First, we need to conduct appropriate negotiations regarding the implementation of Article No. 4 of this treaty, but we are in contact with our North Korean friends and we will see how this process develops.

In any case, the Russian army is acting confidently in all directions, this is also well known, no one denies it, it is moving forward in all areas of the line of combat contact. Actively working in the Kursk direction: part of the Ukrainian army units that invaded the Kursk region are blocked, surrounded, this is about two thousand people. Attempts are being made to unblock this group from the outside, to break through from the inside - so far unsuccessfully. The Russian army has begun to eliminate this group.

As for contacts with Mr. Trump, this is something that has been constantly discussed for more than one year. At one time, we and Trump himself were accused of being somehow connected with Russia. Then, as a result of an investigation in the United States itself, everyone came to the conclusion, including in Congress, in my opinion, that this is complete nonsense, that nothing like this has ever happened. It was not before - it is not now.

And how Russian-American relations will be built after the elections - this depends primarily on the United States. If the United States is open to building normal relations with Russia, then we will do the same. If they do not want to - no need. But this is the choice of the future Administration.