Johannesburg, South Africa — Russia’s special military operation pursues the goal of ending the war in Ukraine unleashed by a number of Western countries and their satellites, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of BRICS leaders.
“Russia has decided to support the people who are fighting for their culture, for their traditions, for their language and for their future. Our actions in Ukraine have only one reason – to put an end to the war that was unleashed by the West and their satellites in Ukraine against the people living in Donbass,” Putin said, according to TASS.
He stressed that it was the wish of a number of Western countries to preserve their hegemony in the world that “has led to the grave crisis in Ukraine.”
Putin recalled that “first, with the help of the Western countries, an unconstitutional coup d’etat was carried out in that country, and then a war was unleashed against those people who did not agree with that coup.”
“This brutal war, a war of extermination, had lasted for eight years,” Putin emphasized.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the efforts by BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) on a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis in his address to a meeting of BRICS leaders via video link.
“We are grateful to our BRICS colleagues who actively participate in efforts to end this situation and achieve a fair settlement by peaceful means,” the Russian leader said.
Earlier, China proposed its plan for the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. Another BRICS member, South Africa, initiated a peace mission of African countries on the issue of settlement. Putin held a meeting with the mission’s representatives on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg.