Conflicts & War

Putin claims had no choice, defends ‘noble’ operation in Ukraine

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Moscow, Apr 12 (EFE).- President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he had no other choice but to launch his military operation in Ukraine and that it would achieve “noble” goals.

“Obviously, we had no other choice, this is correct. And the fact that the goals will be achieved, there is no doubt about it,” Putin said during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome with his regional ally, Belarusian president Alexandr Lukashenko.

“This is what will happen. There are no doubts. The goals are perfectly clear, they are noble,” Putin continued, as cited by Russia’s TASS news agency.

“The main goal is to help the people in Donbas, the people of Donbas, which we have recognized, and we had to do it, because Kyiv authorities, encouraged by the West, refused to implement the Minsk Agreements, aimed at peaceful resolution of Donbas’ problems.”

The Russian leader claimed that “neo-Nazi” ideology had taken hold in Ukraine, a trope that Moscow officials have repeated, without offering evidence, in the lead up to and following the military invasion, which began in late February.

The Russian leader later dismissed reports of a massacre carried out by Moscow’s military men in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, located near Kyiv, describing them as “fake.”

The Russian military is facing allegations of war crimes after hundreds of civilian bodies were recovered in the town following its recapture by Ukrainian forces. Harrowing images from the scene showed bodies dumped into unmarked graves as well as evidence of summary executions, including corpses with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshots wounds to the back of the head. EFE

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