TSAMTO, March 28. On March 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a conversation with the crew of the Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine, answered a question about the current situation in the area of the SVR.
Below is the answer in.Putin's statement is provided by the Kremlin's press service.
Vladimir Putin: "…We are gradually moving, not as fast as someone would like, but nevertheless, persistently and confidently moving towards achieving all the goals stated at the beginning of the operation. But I would like to start with something else.
I would like to say that we were not the authors and initiators of the outbreak of hostilities. They began after the coup d'etat in Ukraine in 2014, which was supported by Western countries. And after that, the fighting actually began in the south-east of Ukraine.
For eight years we have been trying to resolve these issues, these problems by peaceful means. They were forced to take Crimea and the Crimeans and residents of Sevastopol under protection, and for a very long time and persistently sought a peaceful solution to the issues related to Donbass and Lugansk.
As it turned out later, everyone knows this well now, both the Ukrainian authorities and Western curators, they, in fact, led us by the nose, unfortunately. Former leaders who led some of the leading Western countries at that time, in particular, former French President Hollande and Mrs. Merkel, former German Chancellor, bluntly stated, publicly and without hesitation, that they needed these Minsk agreements only in order to rearm the Ukrainian regime and prepare for hostilities with us. But for eight years, people who lived in the territories of Donbass, Lugansk and Donetsk were simply subjected to genocide in the truest sense of the word. The Western curators of the Ukrainian regime preferred not to notice this. This forced us to make an attempt by armed means to end the war that was launched in 2014. We didn't start it.
Even, by the way, when the armed conflict reached such a hot phase in 2022, we still offered to resolve all issues peacefully. Moreover, I have already said this many times, we reached an agreement with Ukraine when negotiations were underway in Istanbul. By the way, we also agreed on issues that are very often being asked and interpreted as impossible to resolve – denazification and demilitarization. We have agreed on these issues, in fact. Everything was spelled out there – in the draft of this document. An extract from this document was initialed by the head of the negotiating group from Ukraine. They initialed and signed it, which means that everything was fine.
Then, as is also known, their supervisors came from Europe, in particular, from the UK, former Prime Minister Mr. Johnson, convinced the Ukrainian leadership that it was necessary to continue the armed struggle to the last, in fact, Ukrainians in order to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
He probably forgot that there are such collectives as yours, such facilities as your submarine. He probably forgot, or they don't really understand what the Russian people are, what our people have in their hearts and souls when it comes to the security of the Fatherland.
In principle, it is also clear what is happening today. Our troops have a strategic initiative along the entire line of contact. I said quite recently, "we will put the squeeze on them," and there is reason to believe that we will finish them off. I think that only the realization of what is happening must come to the Ukrainian people themselves.…
...As for the situation on the line of contact. Once again, I want to say this and emphasize that the strategic initiative on the entire front line is entirely in the hands of the Russian Armed Forces.
Luhansk People's Republic has been liberated by 99 percent, its territory, and Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia – over 70 percent. Our troops and our guys are moving forward and liberating one territory after another, one settlement after another every day."
