Putin claims to have treated the Ukrainians "with respect" and acknowledges that the "shock" with kyiv was "inevitable"

MADRID, 4 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended that Moscow has always treated the Ukrainian population "with respect and warmth", while acknowledging that the "clash" with the "neo-Nazi regime" in Ukraine was "inevitable".

"In Ukraine, the Ukrainian people are the first and main victims of the deliberate sublimation of hatred towards Russians. In Russia, it is exactly the opposite (...) We have always treated and treat the Ukrainian people with respect and warmth," Putin has said.

However, the Russian leader has lamented that the confrontation with Ukraine was "inevitable", and has speculated that without the territorial invasion of his neighboring country in February, the situation today would be the same for Russia, only that the Eurasian nation I would be in a worse position.

In this way, Putin has dropped the idea that the support of the Western powers for Ukraine would have occurred regardless of whether Russia had launched the so-called "special military operation", the euphemism with which they refer to the invasion.

"The situation in Ukraine has been taken by his so-called friends to a point where it has become deadly for Russia and suicidal for the Ukrainian people themselves," the president said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Finally, Putin has stated that the war in Ukraine is a kind of civil war in which "the people are fighting each other", and has taken the opportunity to compare the situation with the conflicts registered in Russia in the 20th century after the October Revolution when, while the population was facing each other, the Western powers "rubbed their hands".