MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Russia was forced to launch the special military operation against Ukraine to put an end to the war Kiev had been waging against its own people since 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Development.
Putin recalled that those who did not accept the 2014 coup d'etat in Ukraine were met with armed resistance from authorities. "They started fighting against them, and they started fighting using artillery, heavy equipment, tanks and aircraft," Putin noted, emphasizing that this is precisely when the war began.
"We are trying to end it. We are forced to do so by armed means," the Russian president remarked.