An India Today journalist asked the Russian president to answer a question from “Russian-speaking Ukrainians” - “Why is Putin doing this to us?” - referring to the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin appeared to pretend he didn’t understand the question.
When news broke that, ahead of his visit to India, the Russian president had granted an exclusive interview to India Today, Russian state media such as TASS rolled out flattering headlines and quotes. But now that the full video is available, anchor Anjana Om Kashyap and journalist Geeta Mohan put at least one uncomfortable question to Putin, notes the outlet Agenstvo.Novosti.
Geeta Mohan asked Putin what he could say to Russian-speaking Ukrainians who, at the start of the war, could not understand “why Putin is doing this to us.”
“Mr. President, you mention history, and that leads me to what I started doing when the conflict began. I traveled to Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson. Most people there do speak Russian. They were very disappointed that in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv banned this language. But they were also shocked: how is Putin doing this to us, we are his people! Many of the women I spoke to were shocked. What can you say to people in eastern Ukraine who actually have families in Russia, who routinely move between Russia and Ukraine? What would you tell them?” the journalist asked.
The question caught Putin off guard: “I didn’t understand the question — shocked by what?”
Mohan clarified: “The people I met were shocked that an operation was launched in which their homes were destroyed. They lived in eastern Ukraine, they always loved Russia, they themselves were Russian-speaking.”
Putin replied: “The answer is very simple: They apparently lived in that part of Ukraine - say, that part of the same Luhansk or Donetsk region - that was under the control of the Kyiv authorities. But the part of the Luhansk or Donetsk region that was not under their control was being destroyed by the Kyiv regime. And we were forced to begin providing support to the part that declared its independence - that’s the first thing. And second - we gave people the opportunity to express themselves in an open referendum: those who believed it was advisable to be together with Russia voted for it; those who did not could calmly leave for other parts of the Ukrainian state. Please, we never prevented this.”
The full transcript of the interview also shows that Vladimir Putin did not say Russia is demanding control not only over Donbas but also over “Novorossiya,” as TASS had previously reported.
Putin also claimed that Russia “did not start this war”: “The West incited Ukraine and supported events by organizing a coup. That is what provoked events in Crimea and then in southeastern Ukraine, in Donbas,” Putin said, launching into a historical narrative and asserting that the capital of Kyivan Rus was “Veliky Novgorod,” that Rus allegedly split, and that its second part had always wanted “to return to Russia.”
He further asserted that Russia “did not annex Crimea”: “We simply came to help people who did not want to tie their lives and fate to those who carried out a coup in Ukraine,” Putin said.
