President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a “special military operation” to try to stop it.

In his yearly speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, being held in Sochi, Putin said Russia, the world’s largest country by area, had no need to take territory from Ukraine.

He said the conflict was not therefore imperial or territorial but about the global order, and that the West, which had lost its hegemonic power and always needed an enemy, had lost touch with reality.

  • MushuChupacabra
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    1871 year ago

    Launching a “special military operation” is starting a war. You can call it a “pacifist peace offering operation”, and it’s still starting a war.

    What Puta calls his starting of the war is irrelevant.

      • @kautau@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sure, but now it’s in print (or at least digitally published), so later on there’s a mountain of journalism, this bit included, that says that he denies any wrongdoing. Every bit of getting his doublespeak out to the public helps

    • @doktorseven@lemmy.world
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      -61
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      1 year ago

      Peace is not war. As much as you should rightfully hate Putin for overstepping his boundaries and bullying Ukraine, he did not fucking start the war. Ukraine did. All the deaths, the destruction, everything? Ukraine’s fault for not allowing a peaceful operation to happen that would have been eventually peacefully and justly resolved without the mass murder of innocents, including young children.

      Sick of revisionist history, and the audacity of recent revisionist history. Putin is the bad guy here. Make no mistake. Do not think I am pro-Russia, pro-Putin here. But not a single bullet was fired, not a single person died before Ukraine decided to defend itself the only way a hateful, war-mongering, blood-thirsty country can.

      • @hdnsmbt@feddit.de
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        231 year ago

        Ok, not a single bullet was fired before Ukraine decided to defend itself? From what?

        • @Aceticon@lemmy.world
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          101 year ago

          Bombs, missiles and artillery rounds.

          The war started with long range weaponry so in a very strict and literal sense it’s quite possible that Ukraine started defending itself before a single bullet was fired.

          The previous commenter’s imaginary universe might’ve actually crossed paths with reality by mere chance, a sort of propagand equivalente of “if you have an infinite number of monkeys typing a typewritters you’ll end up with the complete works of Shakespear”, i.e. “with enough derranged rambling, some of it might actually and by chance coincide with reality”.

      • @tsuica@lemmy.world
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        151 year ago

        I never thought there would be such a thing as too much sarcasm. It bends reality and circles back on itself. Impressive.

            • TwoGems
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              21 year ago

              I think I became dumber. This guy actually believes Putin didn’t invade a country and cause the murder of Ukrainian children with his troops in the first place. He wins first prize for the Russia Propaganda Delusions Awards.

  • themeatbridge
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    1601 year ago

    Test that theory. Leave Ukraine and see how much longer the war continues.

  • FuglyDuck
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    1 year ago

    “No no no…. That convoy wasn’t tanks, it was FARM EQUIPMENT!” -Putin.
    “Well, it’s farm equipment….now”- Ukrainian Farmers

    • @Zithero@lemmy.world
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      131 year ago

      It’s why everyone stopped making agreements with Russia. They have no obligation to hold to the agreements, their word is worth nothing.

  • katy ✨
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    1 year ago

    Russian officials have literally said they’re going to commit Ukrainian genocide and go after Poland next but sure they’re the victim /s

  • The Snark Urge
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    371 year ago

    Run that through the good old projection filter real quick…

    … Ah, shit.

  • TwoGems
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    351 year ago

    You can put “Putin lies” in the title, Reuters. He isn’t going to sue you.

  • Hildegarde
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    301 year ago

    This “article” is three sentences with line breaks so they look like paragraphs.

    This is what passes for journalism these days.

    • @kautau@lemmy.world
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      71 year ago

      I’m guessing that Reuters request for an interview was turned down. Sometimes all you need is three lines. If this was a CNN article or Fox News it would be 10 paragraphs of saying nothing but recapping Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while also adding this in. I find it to be a fine article to point out how Putin is interacting with his international cohorts. It’s to the point and says what needs to be said

  • @JackLSauce@lemmy.world
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    281 year ago

    Can we collectively start down voting all the headlines that boil down to “world leader makes meaningless propaganda statement”

    The admins would remove it as an opinion piece if a reporter made such a claim but it’s somehow different if they hold office?

    • @jet@hackertalks.com
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      301 year ago

      If a reporter had millions of soldiers, thousands of nuclear weapons, a submarine fleet, the world’s largest standing tank deployment… at their beck and call, to enforce their every whim, then yes the mad reporters ravings would be newsworthy.