MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. A direct threat was created near Russia’s borders and an attack was plotted, including against Russia’s Crimea, President Vladimir Putin said in a speech at a military parade on Moscow’s Red Square.
"There were open preparations for another punitive operation [in Donbass], for an incursion into our historic lands, including Crimea. Kiev announced possible acquisition of nuclear weapons, and the NATO bloc started active military colonization of territories belonging to us. So, an absolutely unacceptable threat for us was created, directly near our borders," the president said.
According to Putin, "all this signaled that confrontation with neo-Nazis and pro-Bandera forces, on whom the US and its junior partners placed a stake, would be inevitable."
"We saw how military infrastructure was unfolding, how hundreds of foreign advisers began to work and there were regular shipments of the most advanced weapons from NATO countries. The danger was growing with every passing day. Russia gave a pre-emptive rebuff to aggression. This was a forced, timely and solely correct decision — a decision by a sovereign, strong and independent country," Putin stressed.