Putin: No Russian army in Donbas, only ‘local militia formations’


Vladimir Putin, phot. TASS

There are no Russian troops in Donbas, but some ‘local militia formations’, Vladimir Putin said at today’s press conference.

“There is no Russian army in the Donbas area. Certain local militia formations have been set up there and they are self-sufficient and ready to repel any large-scale military actions against Donbas. We believe that this corresponds to the interests of those people who are living on that territory. This is because if they do not have such a possibility, then a massacre worse than in Srebrenica will be carried out by the so-called nationalist battalions,” Putin said when asked by a Ukrainian journalist about Russian troops in Donbas.

According to him, the Ukrainians and the Russians are ‘one and the same’ people. When the Russian Empire existed, there was no difference; it was the Bolsheviks who divided them, Putin said.

Moscow is not against establishing international control over Donbas, but Kyiv should agree on this directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, he added.

ІІ, belsat.eu

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