Putin has a new explanation for why the war in Ukraine started

 It’s been more than four years since the war in Ukraine started when Russian troops crossed the internationally recognized border of the neighbouring country.

Ahead of the full-scale invasion were a number of years of political tensions, especially in 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

But why did the war actually start? Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to reporters on May 9 during Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, and he made it clear that it was not Russia’s responsibility.

The Western provocation

Russian state-supported news agency RIA Novosti cites the Russian president blaming the “globalist trend” among Western elites for provoking the war.

“What is the West? It’s the so-called, I believe, globalist trend of the Western elites. It’s fighting us through the hands of Ukrainians,” Putin told reporters during a press conference.

The Kremlin has previously accused the West and NATO of planning an attack on Russia in collaboration with Ukraine — accusations that NATO, Ukraine, and the West in general have denied.

“Demilitarise and denazify”

Putin has previously given other explanations for the war in Ukraine. At the launch of the invasion, Putin said that the goal was to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine, according to the BBC.

In 2021, Putin published a lengthy essay in which he claimed that “Russians and Ukrainians were one people”, and in 2024 he told the American talk show host Tucker Carlson that Ukraine was an “artificial state”.

Years before the invasion of Ukraine, and even before the annexation of Crimea, Putin accused NATO of breaking its promise to Russia not to expand eastward.

Historians and analysts conclude that NATO never made such a promise.