Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Friday, speaking at a meeting with the mothers of servicemen participating in a special military operation, that the “reunification” with the Donbas region should have taken place as early as 2014, APA reports citing Tele Trader.
Nevertheless, Putin said that, at that time, Moscow didn’t “fully feel the mood of the people,” adding that it was impossible to catch “what was going on there.”
At present, however, the head of Russia stated that “it has become obvious that this reunification should have happened earlier,” saying that he believes civilian losses would have been minimized if this was the case.