Putin says Ukraine invasion was ‘forced on us’ in speech delayed by cyberattack

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “forced on us” after a 90-minute delay due to a cyberattack.

Putin said that his invasion of neighboring Ukraine in late February was “the decision of a sovereign country that has an unconditional right … to defend its security.”

The president repeated his claims that Moscow chose to invade because Russians living in eastern Ukraine were in danger and needed protection.

He elaborated, referring to two breakaway territories in that region: “A decision aimed at protecting our citizens, residents of the people’s republics of Donbas, who for eight years were subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime and neo-Nazis who received the full protection of the West.”

Putin also characterized his decision to invade as necessary for the maintenance of moral purity in Russia, saying that Russian soldiers are fighting for the right to “reject any attempt to impose pseudo values of dehumanization and moral degradation from outside.”

Much of Putin’s address was aimed at criticizing the U.S. and European Union for their support of Ukraine during Russia’s war on the country.

“When they won the Cold War, the U.S. declared themselves God’s own representatives on Earth, people who have no responsibilities — only interests. They have declared those interests sacred. Now it’s one-way traffic, which makes the world unstable,” said Putin.

He added of the EU: “The European Union has fully lost its sovereignty, and its elites are dancing to someone else’s tune, harming their own population.”

Putin painted the bloc of NATO-affiliated countries as a power-hungry giant looking for reasons to take issue with his country, saying that Russia’s war on Ukraine was a “lifesaver for the West to blame all the problems on Russia.”

Despite the fact that the West is “continuing to pump Ukraine with weapons,” Putin said of the invasion that “all the goals of the special operation will be achieved without any doubt.”

“We will definitely use the colossal opportunities provided by current times and will be even stronger,” he said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin’s speech was delayed by more than an hour and a half because of a distributed denial-of-service cyberattack, the source of which was not immediately evident, according to the BBC.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.