Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his government was “forced to defend the Russian speakers” of eastern Ukraine, despite previously denying that Moscow plays any formal role in the conflict in the Donbas regions.
Putin spoke at a business forum in Moscow, answering questions about the economic situation in Russia, when the issue of the Ukraine conflict was raised. Separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas regions have been fighting the government in Kiev for over two years, since a wave of pro-EU protests in the capital toppled the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
