Vladimir Putin has made the startling claim that the West is responsible for the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian leader said he was doing all he could to stop the war despite continuing to launch missile and drone strikes on civilians.
He also claimed Western people were friendly to him and Russia.
He made this revelation during a visit to secret closed nuclear city Sarov – the birthplace of the Soviet atomic bomb – on Friday.
Putin said: ‘Of course, there is propaganda working there [in the West], brainwashing people and claiming that we started the war.
The West and Kyiv were ‘forgetting that it was they [Ukraine] who started it in 2014 when they used tanks and aviation against the peaceful population of Donbas.
‘That is when the war began, and we are doing everything to stop it.’
This comes week after Putin met with US president Donald Trump to trash out peace talks in Alaska.
