‘We Did Not Start Any War’: Putin Again Denies Russia’s Responsibility for Ukraine Invasion

Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again denied that Russia started the war against Ukraine, repeating a long-standing Kremlin narrative that Moscow merely responded to actions by Kyiv backed by the West.

Speaking at a meeting with Russian Navy personnel in St. Petersburg on Sunday, Putin claimed Russia was forced to respond to a war allegedly launched by the “Kyiv regime.”

“We did not start any war. We only began responding to the military actions, to this war, which the current Kyiv regime launched with the support of the West,” Putin said.

He also claimed that “left-bank Ukraine” had historically been “not just oriented toward Russia, but part of Russia” – a narrative rejected by Ukraine and historians.

Putin further repeated disputed claims about Donbas, saying Soviet authorities had originally intended to include the region in the Russian Soviet republic before Bolshevik leaders transferred it to Soviet Ukraine.

“Now you have to return everything to its proper historical course,” he said, echoing one of the Kremlin’s recurring justifications for its invasion.

The remarks are the latest in a series of attempts by Putin to deny responsibility for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

In December 2025, the Russian leader similarly rejected any blame for the tens of thousands of deaths caused by the conflict.

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During his annual televised press conference, he told NBC News that Russia “did not start this war,” instead claiming it began after what he described as “an unconstitutional armed coup in Ukraine.”

“We do not consider ourselves responsible for the loss of life, because we did not start this war,” Putin said at the time, as the administration of then-US President Donald Trump sought to broker a peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, following its illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and years of Russian-backed fighting in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine, its Western allies, and international courts have consistently rejected Moscow’s claims that Kyiv was responsible for starting the war, describing them as false narratives used to justify Russia’s aggression.