US engineered Ukraine conflict – Putin

The US was responsible for orchestrating the 2014 coup in Ukraine that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovich and ultimately led to the current conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He added that Washington “needed to create a conflict” for its own purposes.

Speaking during a marathon Q&A session on Thursday, Putin said the US “plotted and organized everything” while European leaders “silently watched” and pretended they were not aware of what was happening.

Following the coup, the then-Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, known as Donbass, refused to accept the new government, which increasingly embraced nationalist ideology, and proclaimed their independence instead. Kiev responded with a violent military campaign that prompted a years-long conflict.

Putin asked how, under such conditions, it was possible for Russia to “build any relationships with the West.”

The Russian leader went on to accuse the West of having a short memory, pointing to the 2015 Minsk agreements, which were brokered by Russia, Germany and France and were designed to end the hostilities. The West had “no intention” of implementing the agreements, which Putin said were “signed and immediately forgotten.”

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron later admitted that the agreements were a strategic ploy aimed at buying Ukraine more time to prepare for a conflict with Russia.

In an interview with CNN in 2015, then-US President Barack Obama also openly admitted that the US had "brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine."

As a result, Ukraine has now “largely lost its sovereignty,” Putin said on Thursday, referring to the current conflict, which broke out in February 2022. He added that the Ukrainian authorities have been making “many decisions to their own detriment.” 

In September 2022, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the parts of Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions under Russian control, voted to join Russia in a referendum which Ukraine and its Western backers denounced as illegitimate. 

Moscow has insisted that Kiev must recognize this “new territorial reality” as a prerequisite for any peace talks.

Despite receiving a constant flow of weapons and aid from its Western backers, Kiev’s six-month counteroffensive against Russia has failed to yield significant results and Ukraine has lost some 125,000 military personnel and 6,000 pieces of heavy equipment since the beginning of June, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.