💬 President Vladimir Putin: Many in Europe say that they are expecting an attack by the Russian Federation and so must prepare for hostilities, for a war with Russia.

I would like to emphasise once again that we are not preparing for hostilities with Europe. We have no such plans, no reasons and, most importantly, no real motives for aggravating the situation with Europe, regardless of what is being said [...]

There is only one explanation for the attempts by certain aggressive circles to aggravate the situation: they want to continue using Ukraine and Ukrainians as cannon fodder and a tool in the fight against Russia, seeking to prevent our further development, to hinder it, to slow down Russia’s advancement.

To be able to continue investing in this absolutely aggressive behaviour and to explain to their citizens why they are doing this, they are trying to dupe the citizens of European countries with the idea that Russia is allegedly planning to attack someone. This is complete nonsense.

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