ULAN-UDE, March 14. /TASS/. Russia cannot abandon the Russian-speaking population and it is fighting for the Russian world in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, while answering a question from one of the employees of the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant.
"For us, this is a struggle for our people who live on these territories," the president stressed. "We are a multi-ethnic country. But still, this is the Russian world. If you chance to have a word with the people who come from there - I’ve met some of them - they are no different from you and me! They are the same as we are. They are part of us, how can they be abandoned?" Putin added.
He stressed that Russia had spent eight years trying to solve the Donbass issue peacefully, but was repeatedly fooled.
"We spent eight years trying to persuade our so-called partners to resolve the Donbass issue peacefully. It has now turned out that they fooled, deceived us. They aren’t shy to say it publicly," Putin stated.
He stressed that Russia, unlike the West, was fighting not for its geopolitical position, but for the existence of its statehood.
"Whereas for our Western partners, so-called, for our opponents today - we can now say this directly - the point at issue is an improvement of the geopolitical position, then for us, bearing in mind the prehistory of the last eight to ten years, everything that is happening now is not just an improvement of some geopolitical position. <...> For us, it is a struggle for the existence of Russian statehood," Putin said.
Putin stressed that the enemy’s sole task was to shake loose the Russian state and "to tear it apart."
"For us this is not a geopolitical task, but the task of the ensuring the survival of Russian statehood and of creating conditions for the future development of our country and our children," he concluded.