Putin bombs Kramatorsk and warns that “nothing serious” has started in Ukraine

At least one person has died and six were injured in a Russian missile attack Thursday in the heart of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorskas confirmed by Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region.

“A Russian missile hit the center of Kramatorsk. It is known for certain that one person was killed and six were injured, but these figures may change,” he said.

The missile would damaged six buildings, including a hotel and an apartment block in the large industrial center. The attack coincides with a claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia has not yet started “anything serious” in Ukraine, stressing that Russian troops are focused on the Donbas region.

“Everyone should know that we really haven’t started anything serious yet. At the same time we do not refuse to hold peace talks. But those who refuse should know that the more time passes, the more difficult it will be to reach an agreement with us,” she said at a meeting with the leaders of the parliamentary groups and the leadership of the Lower House in the Kremlin.

The president dedicated a large part of his speech to lash out at the west and to affirm that Russia is not to blame for the armed conflict.

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“Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can be said, then let them try. We have heard many times that the West wants to fight with us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything points to it,” she said.

In the opinion of the Kremlin chief, the West, led by the United States, has “been extremely aggressive with Russia for decades.”

Putin stressed that his proposals to create a new security system in Europe have been rejected, as have his initiatives to resolve the threat of US missile defense in the Old Continent and his warnings about the unacceptability of NATO expansion, especially to the former Soviet republics.

“And why? Because they just don’t need a country like Russia, that’s why. That is why they supported terrorism, separatism in Russia, internal destructive forces and the “fifth column” in our country. All of them received and receive the unconditional support of this same collective West,” he stated.

“They tell us that we started a war in Donbas, in Ukraine. No, the unleashed this same collective West by organizing and supporting in Ukraine an unconstitutional armed coup in 2014, and then encouraging and justifying the genocide of the people of Donbas. This same West is the instigator and the culprit of what is happening today,” the Kremlin chief said.

Putin accused the West of having provoked a conflict to “move to a new stage in the fight against Russia, a new stage in the containment” of the country.

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“So we can say that he succeeded to a certain extent. And the war broke out and sanctions were imposed,” he stressed.

The Russian president considers that the West “should have understood that they have already lost since our special military operation began, because its beginning also means the beginning of a radical rupture of the American world order.”

Putin argued that this is the beginning of the transition “from American liberal-globalist egocentrism to a truly multipolar world, a world based not on selfish rules invented by someone for himself.

“And we must understand that this process can no longer be stopped,” he reiterated.