MURMANSK, March 28. /TASS/. Combat in Ukraine started following a coup d’etat and was not initiated by Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with the servicemen of the Arkhangelsk nuclear-powered submarine of the Yasen-M class (Project 885M).
"We were not the authors and initiators of this combat. It began after the 2014 coup d’etat in Ukraine supported by Western countries. And following this, combat in Ukraine’s southeast began," he noted.
Putin emphasized that for eight years, Russia has been trying to settle the Ukrainian issue peacefully.