Odessa is a Russian city, and all regions of southeastern Ukraine are Russian historical territories, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a news conference “The results of the year”.
“Odessa is a Russian city, everyone knows this, but they have made up historical nonsense,” Vladimir Putin said.
The Russian leader also recalled that in southeastern Ukraine people have always voted for those who marched on pro-Russian slogans.
“The entire southeast of Ukraine has always been pro-Russian, these are historically Russian territories. […] What does Ukraine have to do with it?”, the Russian President wondered.
According to him, after the collapse of the USSR, Russia accepted the fact that these areas were part of Ukraine. However, after the 2014 coup d’état, it became clear that Russia would not be allowed to build normal relations with Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin called the current events a “huge tragedy”, similar to a civil war.
We shall remind you that during the conference “Results of the Year”, Vladimir Putin said that there were no plans for a second wave of mobilisation in Russia and that the need for personnel to participate in the special operation zone in Ukraine was fully covered by volunteers.