Putin says Ukrainians have become 'hostages' to Western interests

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the Ukrainian people have become "hostages" to the interests of the West, accusing the latter of provoking Russophobia.​​​​​​​

"The Ukrainian people became hostages of the coup d'état and the criminal regime of its Western masters that had developed on its basis, a bargaining chip in the implementation of their cruel, selfish plans," Putin said in his address at the Victory Day parade in Moscow, a holiday that commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

The 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine, which Moscow claims were supported by the West, had led to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, who was viewed as pro-Russian.

Moscow started its "special military operation" in Ukraine last year in February to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. For Western countries, however, it is a war of aggression and they have imposed severe sanctions in response.

Putin said "exorbitant ambitions, arrogance and permissiveness" turned into a "tragedy," which he claimed to be the reason for “the current catastrophe in Ukraine.”

He said the West "still talks about its exclusivity, pit people and split society, provoke bloody conflicts and coups, sow hatred, Russophobia, aggressive nationalism, and destroy family and traditional values that make a person human."

The Russian leader said the West follows the approach "to continue to dictate, to impose their will, their rights, rules on the peoples - in essence, a system of robbery, violence and suppression."

"Their aim is to achieve the disintegration and destruction of our country, cross out the results of World War II, finally break the system of global security and international law, strangle any sovereign centers of development," he claimed.