Kiev started the conflict in 2014 when it began “using tanks and aircraft” against civilians in Donbass, the Russian president has said

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference in Sarov, Russia, August 22, 2025. ©  Evgeny Biyatov/RIA Novosti

Russia is doing everything possible to put an end to the Ukraine conflict, which started when Kiev began to attack the civilian population of Donbass in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

Moscow does not see countries as “unfriendly,” but rather sees “unfriendly elites” in certain nations, he said on Friday during a meeting with young scientists at the nuclear center in the town of Sarov.

“Propaganda there works, of course. They brainwash people and say that we started the war,” he said.

“They forget that they themselves started the war in 2014, when they began using tanks and aircraft against the civilian population of Donbass,” Putin said.

“That’s when the war began. And we are doing everything possible to stop it.”

Putin has previously said that one of the core reasons Russia began its special military operation in 2022 was to protect the populations of Donbass from “genocide perpetrated by the Kiev regime.” 

Moscow had long accused Kiev of attacking civilians in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which moved to cede from Ukraine following the Western-backed Maidan coup in 2014.

Both republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in September 2022. Crimea voted to rejoin Russia shortly after the coup, in 2014.

 

READ MORE: Russia ready to ‘show flexibility’ on Trump’s Ukraine proposals – Lavrov

Putin has engaged with US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts, meeting him for a face-to-face summit in Alaska last week.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, Moscow has agreed to “show flexibility” regarding a number of issues that the US president raised at the summit.

However, despite Trump bringing up his proposals with Vladimir Zelensky and his Western European sponsors at a later meeting, the Ukrainian leader has “said no to everything,” Lavrov told NBC on Friday. Ukrainian officials have shown that they are “not interested in a sustainable, fair, long-term settlement,” he said a day earlier.

 

 

READ MORE: Nord Stream sabotage suspect used Ukrainian government car to flee – Spiegel

“If someone can actually believe this version, then it’s only people who are afraid of the truth and are trying to protect the criminal Kiev regime in any way possible,” he suggested.

Lavrov said despite submitting numerous requests, Russia had still not received any information about the investigation from the German authorities, and claimed the probe lacked transparency.

Meanwhile, Denmark and Sweden, who have also ignored all of Moscow’s requests, have stated that they had closed down their national investigations into the Nord Stream explosions, the minister noted.

“We will not abandon this topic, we will continue to seek a transparent investigation, which is being blocked in every possible way by the US, Britain and their allies,” Lavrov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims that the pipelines were blown up by activists as “complete nonsense,” and has insisted that the explosions were carried out by professionals supported by “the full might of the state, which has certain technologies.”