ST. PETERSBURG, June 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West for the tragedy in Ukraine.
"Everything related to what is happening, to the tragedy that is happening in Ukraine, is not the result of our work. This is the result of the work of those who do not want to put up with the global changes taking place in the world," the Russian leader said at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
At the same time, Putin highlighted that "the former US administration explicitly said that it had spent billions of dollars on this coup [in Ukraine]."
The Russian president noted that the administration of former American leader Joe Biden "did not hesitate to publicly say so. And our actions were aimed at protecting the part of the population that considered itself vitally and spiritually connected with Russia, with Russian culture and people. I mean people living in Crimea," he explained.
The Russian leader noted that Russia has made attempts to resolve the situation in the south-east of Ukraine, in Donetsk and Lugansk. "However, again, acting from a position of strength, our ideological opponents in this case tried to resolve this issue again by armed means, launching military operations in Donetsk, Lugansk, and Donbass. We did not start the fighting!" said Putin.
