Putin tells why he started the war

Vladimir Putin said on the air of the Moscow Kremlin programme that the war in Ukraine was allegedly based on the policy of the Kremlin's geopolitical opponents aimed at "tearing apart historical Russia", RBC has reported.

He also said that by killing Ukrainians, Russia aims to "unite the Russian people".

Divide and conquer. Their opponents have always tried to do this, and are trying to do it now, while our goal is different - to unite the Russian people

In his words, Russia was acting in the right direction in the conflict with Ukraine, defending its national interests, its citizens:

Russia could not behave as cynically as the West in the situation in Ukraine, we have a different philosophy, a different attitude to life and to people

He also spoke again about peace talks with Ukraine, in particular, the Kremlin head said that Russia was supposedly ready to negotiate, but, as always, accused Ukraine of not being ready for the negotiation process:

We are ready to negotiate with all the participants in this process on acceptable some kind of unbundling, but it is their business - it is not us who refuse to negotiate, it is them

Putin commented on Patriot deliveries to Ukraine