Lead
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Navy servicemen in St. Petersburg that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but is responding to hostilities it says were unleashed by the Kiev regime with Western support. He blamed years of aggressive Western actions, including NATO's eastward expansion and the 2014 coup in Ukraine, for forcing Moscow to launch its special military operation.
Coverage comparison
Two reports from the Russian state news agency TASS covered Putin's remarks at the meeting with Russian Navy service members. Both focus on Putin's framing of Russia's role in the conflict, quoting him directly. The first report emphasizes his claim that Western actions led to the conflict, while the second centers on his denial that Russia's actions amount to aggression.
Key claims
Putin said that "years of aggressive actions by the West against Russia led to the conflict in Ukraine and forced Moscow to launch the special military operation." He recalled an unfulfilled Western promise not to expand NATO's infrastructure eastward, saying: "They kept moving, moving, until they reached Ukraine."
According to Putin, Ukraine's then-president supported joining the European Union but opposed NATO membership. He claimed that a "bloody, unconstitutional coup" took place in 2014, and that "the entire West acted as if nothing had happened." He argued that these aggressive actions, "escalating year after year," led to the conflict and forced Russia to launch the operation "in an effort to end the hostilities that had already been started by the West and the Kiev government."
Putin said that Russia is not committing aggression in Ukraine. He asked: "Is it because of Russia's aggression? The so-called aggression. No, of course not." He added: "We didn't start any war. We merely began responding to the hostilities, to the war that the current Kiev regime, with Western support, unleashed against what was then southeastern Ukraine, a region that had always leaned toward Russia." He also pointed to the situation in "liberated settlements" as evidence of why the operation is needed.