He said he wasn't going to invade Ukraine, that was a bit of a porky
That's why he deliberately termed the incursion as a Special Military Operation, as he answered a request for help from the Russian-speaking populations of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts who had suffered 14,000 deaths from bombing by Kiev between 2014 and 2021.
Talking of lies, declassified documents show security assurances against NATO expansion to given to Soviet leaders [following German reunification] from Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner. That collective lie led to all this.
Oh, and the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 Accords (which would have kept Ukraine intact) were guaranteed by France and Germany but they later admitted that they had no intention of honouring the Accords. So they effectively lied.
And, of course, following the initial incursion by 70,000 Russian troops, Ukraine initialed the Istanbul Agreement which, again, would have kept Ukraine intact. As part of that, Russia agreed as a goodwill gesture to withdraw troops from Kiev. Unfortunately, Johnson flew to Kiev and told Zelensky not to sign, but to fight Russia instead. Very bad move.
Had the Minsk Accords and the Istanbul Agreement been honoured, Donbass would have remained part of Ukraine, albeit with autonomy governing language, religion etc.
In a little mitigation, Zelensky has been under pressure from the Nazi element within Western Ukrainian society. These openly display the Nazi salute and have tattoos of Hitler and the Waffen SS.
My late parents both served in WW2 against Nazism. I honour their memory by similarly opposing Nazism in Ukraine.
You won't find all that on the BBC.
However, in 2015 (following the coup of 2014), Consortium News reported: "The U.S. House of Representatives has admitted an ugly truth that the U.S. mainstream media has tried to hide from the American people that the post-coup regime in Ukraine has relied heavily on Nazi storm troopers to carry out its bloody war against ethnic Russians, reports Robert Parry."
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/12/u-s-house-admits-nazi-role-in-ukraine/
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This , Gentlemen, is a superb example of how a tyranical ,authoritarian administration successfully operates it's propaganda machine .
Single source deeply biased information spoon fed to a corraled , subservient and intimidated populace , who understand the consequences if they openly question what they have to believe .
It's nigh on impossible for us in the free West to understand the inward almost incestuous vision of those that has been implanted and then exploited by the russian elite for decades .
In some very slight way , I have sympathy for them because if you are spoon fed excreta every day steak may taste awful.
The author of this diatribe above is well known to the forum for his pro russian views and sympathies .
On at least two occasions he has proudly announced living with his russian wife and family surrounded by russian friends so his deeply flawed and frankly nausiating portrayel of the events surrounding putin's invasion of a sovereign state are quite understandable and traceable to their source(s) ......
I ceased engaging with him on this subject some time ago simply due to the fact that you will never persuade or convert an indoctrinated fool with three paragraphs on an Internet forum.
In a perverse way welcome his bizzare musings as it boosts my belief that russians are full of self importance , have a state cultivated arrogance in their perceived place in the civilised world and warmly envelope themselves in a slavish relationship with who ever holds the reigns of power in their deeply flawed and corrupt administration.
I often ponder if Jens Stolenburg said " Look , just stay within the confines of your sordid , primitive and unsophisticated country and clip your talons of covert involvement in Soverign states and we will ignore you ." if it would in any slight way let them understand what we all really feel about them.
That stage managed "interview " was an affront to any person with the ability to listen , consider , fact check and conclude .
And yes , I did watch it .