Putin Blames Europe for the Ongoing Ukraine Conflict
In his recent speech at the international ‘Valdai’ forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin made controversial remarks regarding the situation in Ukraine and Europe’s role in the crisis.
He expressed the view that Ukrainian suffering causes pain not only to Russia but to the entire world, yet emphasized that Europe bears primary responsibility for the prolongation of the conflict.
Putin accused the West, particularly the United States and NATO, of exacerbating the situation by using Ukraine as a tool in a broader geopolitical game.
According to him, the conflict could have been avoided if, in 2016, Trump had been in power and NATO had not expanded toward Russia’s borders.
The Kremlin leader also blamed European politicians for creating an enemy image to distract from internal issues and dismissed the idea of a potential war between Russia and Europe as ‘nonsense.’ He reaffirmed that Russia has never initiated military confrontation and warned against provoking Moscow, as such actions tend to have negative consequences.
Moreover, Putin mentioned that he was twice willing to join NATO — first in 1954 as part of the USSR, and again in 2000 during Bill Clinton’s visit — highlighting the longstanding tension in Russia-West relations.
These statements underscore the persistent hostility and the difficulty of achieving peace and security in the current geopolitical climate.