Maria Zakharova

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

Russian federation'southward Foreign Ministry building says it wants to end the viii-year bloodbath in Donbass that both Ukraine and the W turned a bullheaded centre to

The Westward spent viii years ignoring the "sea of claret" in Donbass while arming Ukraine, and now claims Moscow is the assailant when it stepped in to end the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry building spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appear a military operation in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, claiming it was necessary to "demilitarize and de-nazify" the neighbor. Kiev accused Russia of assailment, while the The states, EU and NATO have called it an "unprovoked" invasion. Moscow insists this is non the case.

In announcing the performance, Putin said the "main objective is to stop the escalation of the war that's been going on for 8 years, and to stop the state of war," Zakharova told RT in an exclusive interview.

"Russia did not commit aggression of any kind," Zakharova insisted. "This did not start yesterday. In that location's a sea of blood that's appeared over the past viii years," she added, referring to the conflict in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which Russian federation on Monday recognized equally independent states.

The main aim is to finish the escalation of the state of war that'due south been going on for viii years, to end this war

Donetsk and Lugansk broke abroad from Ukraine in 2014, later the Due west-backed insurrection ousted the democratically elected government in Kiev. Zakharova noted that the 2 self-proclaimed republics held a referendum viii years ago, saying they did non desire to remain in Ukraine, but both Moscow and the West rejected this and tried to put the "broken" country dorsum together.

When asked about President Volodymyr Zelensky's statement 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 go 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 own people in southeast Ukraine, and spoke often almost seizing Crimea." The peninsula voted to rejoin Russia in March 2014, merely Ukraine and its Western backers have refused to recognize this, calling it an "looting."

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

Divisions in Ukraine go 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 state.

For years, she said, Western media and so concerned over human rights in places like South Sudan and Myanmar kept silent on all this, ignoring that more than 13,000 people have died in the Donbass - many of them civilians. While Russian federation provided them with humanitarian aid, Kiev besieged them by cutting off trade, finance, and fifty-fifty utilities. Zakharova noted that the water culvert towards Crimea is now once again operational after Ukraine "criminally" shut it off years ago.