Putin in his speech: “The West has lost its sense of reality. We did not start the so-called war.” Ukraine-Russia war

“We did not start the so-called war in Ukraine,” Putin said in a speech during a meeting in Sochi on the Black Sea. “On the contrary, we are trying to eliminate it,” he added.

The Kremlin leader said that the West may have caused the war because the United States considers itself the sole arbiter of truth on the planet. According to Putin, Western leaders have lost their “sense of reality” because of what he called Washington’s “colonial thinking.” He wondered what right the United States had to lecture other countries. He criticized Western “hegemony”.

During his speech on Thursday, the president said that Russia’s mission is to build a “new world.” From this perspective, Putin believes that the Russian invasion of Ukraine does not constitute a “regional conflict,” but rather an event that should define the “principles” on which the new world order will be based.

“We have no interest in regaining territory,” Putin said, yet he demanded the annexation of four regions of Ukraine in September 2022, after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Putin also accused the West of demonizing China and creating an “anti-Muslim” environment. “They are trying to portray a hostile image to all those who do not wish to follow Western elites.” According to the Russian president, the time when the West could impose its will on other countries, as happened during colonialism, “is long gone” and that era will “never” return.

Putin says that Russia wants to live in an “open world” in which international relations are freed from the “logic of blocs” and based on “collective solutions.”