Maria Zakharova

© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

Russian federation'due south Foreign Ministry says it wants to end the 8-twelvemonth bloodbath in Donbass that both Ukraine and the West turned a blind middle to

The West spent eight years ignoring the "bounding main of blood" in Donbass while arming Ukraine, and at present claims Moscow is the assailant when it stepped in to end the disharmonize, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appear a armed forces operation in Ukraine in the early hours of Th, challenge information technology was necessary to "demilitarize and de-nazify" the neighbor. Kiev accused Russia of aggression, while the Usa, European union and NATO have called it an "unprovoked" invasion. Moscow insists this is not the case.

In announcing the operation, Putin said the "primary objective is to stop the escalation of the war that's been going on for eight years, and to stop the war," Zakharova told RT in an exclusive interview.

"Russian federation did not commit aggression of any kind," Zakharova insisted. "This did not starting time yesterday. In that location's a body of water of claret that's appeared over the past viii years," she added, referring to the conflict in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which Russia on Mon recognized as contained states.

The master aim is to stop the escalation of the war that's been going on for eight years, to stop this war

Donetsk and Lugansk broke away from Ukraine in 2014, after the West-backed insurrection ousted the democratically elected government in Kiev. Zakharova noted that the two self-proclaimed republics held a referendum 8 years ago, saying they did not want to remain in Ukraine, but both Moscow and the West rejected this and tried to put the "broken" country back together.

When asked virtually President Volodymyr Zelensky's argument that Ukraine wanted peace, Zakharova wondered why Ukraine was arming itself and refusing to negotiate with the Donbass.

"If Ukraine wanted peace, why did they get all these weapons" from all over the world, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told RT, adding, "It was clear that these were offensive weapons. Who were they fighting? Their ain people in southeast Ukraine, and spoke oftentimes about seizing Crimea." The peninsula voted to rejoin Russia in March 2014, but Ukraine and its Western backers have refused to recognize this, calling it an "annexation."

Zakharova too noted that the top Ukrainian officials have openly and publicly brought up the thought of obtaining nuclear weapons in contempo weeks, pointing out this was a fact and not something claimed by Russian intelligence.

Divisions in Ukraine become beyond Donetsk and Lugansk, Zakharova added, accusing armed groups with Nazi-era symbols - such as the notorious Azov Battalion - of having influence over much of the country.

For years, she said, Western media then concerned over homo rights in places like South Sudan and Myanmar kept silent on all this, ignoring that more 13,000 people have died in the Donbass - many of them civilians. While Russia provided them with humanitarian assist, Kiev besieged them by cutting off trade, finance, and even utilities. Zakharova noted that the h2o culvert towards Crimea is now once again operational after Ukraine "criminally" close information technology off years ago.