MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Rashid Nurgaliyev, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, has disagreed with the narrative in the West and Ukraine that alleges Russia didn’t want to hold talks with Kiev, according to his interview to the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper published on Monday.
He said the special military operation was started because there was a direct threat to Russia’s security.
"The West didn’t allow Ukraine to comply with the Minsk agreements. On the contrary, it helped its militarization, creating an illusion with the authorities in Kiev that they would be able to seize Crimea and resolve the situation in Donbass militarily," the official said in the interview.
He said the "Kiev regime was pulling together a significant number of troops and heavy weapons at the borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as a large-scale offensive on these lands was being prepared." The Security Council official said that "created a direct threat to Russia's national security" and Russians "that live there and whom we are obliged to protect under the constitution."
"It was in this context that, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter and with the approval of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, the special military operation was started," Nurgaliyev said.