"Russia not against Ukraine citizens": Putin says 'West unleashed war'

• Vladimir Putin accused the west of “playing a dirty game” over the Ukraine war
• He said Moscow did everything possible to solve the "problems of Donbas" by peaceful means
• Putin said Russia is not at war with Ukrainian citizens but against the regime

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a major speech on the Ukraine war, accused the west of “playing a dirty game” and said Moscow did everything possible to solve the "problems of Donbas" by peaceful means. He said Russia is not at war with Ukrainian citizens but against the regime.

"Donbas believed in and waited for Russia to come to the rescue. By February 2022, it became apparent that everything was prepared for a punitive action from Kyiv on Donbas," Putin said, blaming Ukraine and the West for Moscow's full-scale invasion that followed.

In his speech, which came just before the first anniversary of Russia's war with Ukraine, Putin said that the West deceived their own people with “total unprincipled lies” about what was happening in Donbas. “I would like to repeat, they started the war, and we used force in order to stop it," the Russian President said.

Vladimir Putin went on to state that the objective of the West was unlimited power and Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, was obviously the next target after Donbas. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.