Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow’s “military operation” – the Kremlin’s euphemism for the war in Ukraine – would achieve what he called “noble goals”.
Speaking at an event in the east of the country, Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as repeating arguments to justify the invasion of Ukrainian territory ordered on February 24.
According to him, Russia had no choice but to start the operation to protect itself. For Putin, confrontation with Ukraine’s “anti-Russian forces” was inevitable.
“On the one hand, we are helping and saving people, and on the other hand, we are simply taking measures to ensure the security of Russia itself,” the Russian president said. “Of course we had no choice. It was the right decision.”
Putin also said the main goal of Moscow’s intervention is to “save” people in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. The territory encompasses Lugansk and Donetsk, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. Days before the start of the war, Russia recognized the two regions as independent republics.
“Its objectives are absolutely clear and noble,” Putin said of the military campaign that is now in its 48th day, with a toll of thousands of dead, at least 4.6 million refugees, entire cities practically destroyed and a scenario of tension that constitutes the most serious security crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
