RT reported that at the annual year-end press conference on December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if Russia had known how events would take place, it would have needed to prepare more carefully for such actions.
Russia deployed troops across the border in February 2022, accusing the Ukrainian government of flatly rejecting all agreements and increasing shelling of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics borders. Just a few weeks later, the two sides were close to a ceasefire, but Kiev withdrew under pressure from the West, encouraged by promises of unlimited military assistance.
You know, if I could look back at the situation in 2022, knowing what is happening now, what would I think? The decision made in early 2022 should have been implemented earlier, President Putin said in the Q&A section of the press conference. And second, if we had known in advance, we should have started systematically preparing for these operations, including special military operations, he said.
The Russian leader noted that events in Crimea following the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 took place spontaneously, and that activities in 2022 also began without significant preparation.
Why did we launch the campaign? Because we cannot stand still and wait for the situation to worsen for us - that is the reason - Mr. Putin explained.
President Putin reiterated that the Ukrainian government has clearly stated that it will not comply with the Minsk agreement and made statements about the possession of weapons of mass destruction. According to him, Russia cannot continue to tolerate the killing of civilians in Kiev's so-called "anti-terrorist campaign" in Donbass.
8 years of war and the destruction of people in Donbass... they have given up the Minsk agreement. Moreover, we see a real military occupation in these areas along with the systematic destruction of everything related to Russia, Putin said.
We were forced to act. If we had known what was coming, we should have prepared systematically and seriously. That is what I want to say, Putin added.
The Russian president also stressed the complexity of the ongoing conflict, saying it was difficult to predict how long it would last. Combat operations are very complicated, so it is difficult and unnecessary to make predictions. We are moving towards solving the main tasks, outlined at the outset of a special military campaign, such as neutralization and de numberimization of Ukraine," Putin noted.
At the same time, Russia has never ruled out the possibility of negotiations. President Putin reaffirmed that Moscow is still ready for dialogue with the legitimate government in Kiev without any preconditions, except for the ones agreed in Istanbul in 2022.
According to those preliminary agreements, Ukraine remains neutral and united, as well as has certain limitations in the deployment of foreign weapons. Mr. Putin also noted that such negotiations need to respect the reality that has been formed on the ground since then.
