Some of what Putin told Tucker Carlson missed the bigger picture. This fills in the gaps
ABC News
Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down in the Kremlin for an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson
Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down in the Kremlin for a two-hour interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, pushing his views on the justification for the nearly 2-year-old war in Ukraine, the prospects of peace talks, and other issues. He also touched on the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal, who is charged with espionage,
A look at some key quotes from Putin, supplying context and background:
PUTIN'S QUOTE: “It was they who started the war in 2014. Our goal is to stop this war. And we did not start this war in 2022. This is an attempt to stop it.”
THE CONTEXT: This statement refers to the violence in Ukraine that was sparked by the 2014 ouster of the Moscow-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych, amid mass anti-government demonstrations in Kyiv. Russia responded by illegally annexing the Crimea region of Ukraine, and fighting broke out in the country's industrial east, where pro-Moscow separatists said they were trying to protect the Russian-speaking population.
When Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine and its Western allies described it as an unprovoked act of aggression. Putin said Moscow was forced to act preemptively to stop Ukraine from joining NATO and prevent a large-scale offensive by Kyiv aimed at reclaiming those eastern regions. Russia has provided no evidence that any such operation was in the making.
