Putin continues his false narrative: We didn’t start the war in the Donbas

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual state of the nation address to the Russian elite today. He gave false information about his war that began in Ukraine, as well as the war that began in the Donbas in 2014.

What did Putin say?

“We did not start the war in the Donbass, but we will do everything to end it, eradicate Nazism, protect our sovereignty and ensure the safety of our citizens.”

Analysis:

Russia’s war against Ukraine did not begin on February 24, 2022, but in 2014, with both the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.

While the Kremlin was proud of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, it tried for years to conceal its involvement in the war in Donbass.

Instead, despite a lack of evidence, Moscow spread the false narrative that self-organized “separatist” groups in eastern Ukraine were responsible for the aggression.

Many politicians, experts and journalists around the world took part in the Russian propaganda and referred to the war in Donbas as a civil war. The war in Donbas cannot be called a civil war because it was instigated and coordinated by Russia.

Although the Kremlin has repeatedly described the war as an internal Ukrainian war, international organizations and journalists have found direct evidence of Russian involvement.

The European Court of Human Rights declared in a judgment that “territories in eastern Ukraine in the hands of separatists were under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation from May 11, 2014 until at least January 26, 2022.”

In 2021, Russia was caught in court documents admitting to having deployed units of the Russian armed forces in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The Center for Economic and Business Research has found that Ukraine suffered losses totaling $102 billion due to the Russian war in the Donbass from 2014 to 2021 Russia’s occupation of the Donbass.

At least two million people were forced to leave their homes due to the fighting, and almost as many people continued to live in poverty under Russian occupation.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been held hostage in the Russian-occupied territories, and at least 3,900 civilians and 4,200 soldiers have died in the Donbas since February 2021.

These facts therefore refute Putin’s statement that Russia did not start the war in the Donbas.

/G. Venhari, The Geopost