MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia has been forced to respond to the situation in Ukraine and «do what the country is doing now,» Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
«They just forced us to do what we are doing now and they are trying to make us guilty,» Putin told a meeting with representatives of the Russian business community.
He stressed that it was not Russia that organized a «bloody coup» in Ukraine.
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Putin said the goal was “to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”
He described the operation as a necessary measure, insisting that Russia was left with “no other choice,” and that the security risks had reached a point where no other response was possible.
