SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of wanting to break up Russia, and said that he had sent Russia’s armed forces into Ukraine in February in order to prevent this.
Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and discussing the war publicly for the first time since Ukraine routed Russian troops in the Kharkiv region last week, Putin threatened strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, and said: “We will see how (Ukraine’s counteroffensive) ends.”
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
