Maria Zakharova

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

Russia's Foreign Ministry building says it wants to end the 8-year bloodbath in Donbass that both Ukraine and the West turned a blind heart to

The West spent eight years ignoring the "sea of blood" in Donbass while arming Ukraine, and now claims Moscow is the aggressor when information technology stepped in to stop the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry building spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Th.

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 neighbour. Kiev defendant Russia of assailment, while the U.s., EU and NATO have called it an "unprovoked" invasion. Moscow insists this is non the example.

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

"Russia did non commit assailment of whatever kind," Zakharova insisted. "This did non commencement yesterday. At that place's a body of water of blood that's appeared over the past 8 years," she added, referring to the conflict in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which Russia on Mon recognized as independent states.

The main aim is to cease the escalation of the state of war that's been going on for viii years, to stop this war

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

When asked about President Volodymyr Zelensky'due south 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 get all these weapons" from all over the world, the Strange Ministry building spokeswoman told RT, calculation, "It was clear that these were offensive weapons. Who were they fighting? Their own people in southeast Ukraine, and spoke oft almost seizing Crimea." The peninsula voted to rejoin Russian federation in March 2014, merely Ukraine and its Western backers take refused to recognize this, calling it an "annexation."

Zakharova also noted that the pinnacle Ukrainian officials have openly and publicly brought up the thought of obtaining nuclear weapons in recent weeks, pointing out this was a fact and not something claimed past 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 land.

For years, she said, Western media 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 merchandise, finance, and even utilities. Zakharova noted that the water canal towards Crimea is now one time again operational after Ukraine "criminally" shut it off years ago.