President Putin says Russia is being "led by the nose", worries about one thing about Ukraine

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the reason for Moscow launching a special military campaign in Ukraine was Kiev's refusal to implement the "Minsk agreements".

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has been concerned about the possibility of Ukraine being drawn into NATO. (Source: Reuters)

TASS reported that Mr. Putin made the above statement in an interview on February 14 with famous journalist Pavel Zarubin of the VGTRK television group. Besides, "continuous attacks causing many casualties on the (self-proclaimed) republics in Donbass" are also a cause.

Expressing regret that Russia did not start "active actions" in Ukraine earlier, the Russian President noted that at the initial stage, Moscow tried to resolve the conflict in Donbass "by peaceful means such as the Minsk agreements".

However, according to him, Russia was "led by the nose" in this issue so that European leaders could successfully buy time to pump more weapons into Ukraine.

The Kremlin leader confirmed that Moscow has been concerned about the possibility of Ukraine being drawn into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), because this threatens Russia's security.

On the same day, Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov announced that the special military operation was launched "as an operation against Ukraine, over time it took the form of a collective war against the West."

According to the official, Western countries, led by the US, have “directly participated in this conflict”, and because of that, it “may last a little longer” but “will not change the course of events”.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out on February 24, 2022, and is about to enter its third year, with no sign of peace talks yet.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tong-thong-putin-noi-nga-bi-dat-mui-lo-ngai-mot-dieu-ve-ukraine-260934.html