Private resentment and a need for revenge have been the driving elements behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s choice to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine final February, an investigation has claimed.
Verstka, an unbiased Russian information outlet that was based shortly after the battle started, revealed a deep-dive report this week entitled “How Putin Got here to Hate Ukraine,” which cites former and present officers within the Russian and Ukrainian governments. Kremlin reporter Ilya Zhegulev wrote that loyal Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk is on the heart of the Russian chief’s so-called “particular army operation” within the neighboring nation, and that he had already determined to assault Kyiv in February-March 2021.
Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarch who was launched by Kyiv in a prisoner swap with Russia in September 2022. The 68-year-old has shut ties with Putin, who’s believed to be the godfather of his youngest daughter. Medvedchuk was the previous chief of a pro-Russian opposition social gathering in Ukraine, and was detained in April 2022 by Ukraine’s state safety service, the SBU, after he fled home arrest whereas awaiting trial on treason costs. Kyiv has stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship.
ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Photos
In 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree sanctioning three tv stations affiliated with Medvedchuk, stopping them from broadcasting. For Putin, this was “the ultimate straw,” Verstka wrote.
“In February 2021, a particular operation was carried out, the aim of which was to neutralize Medvedchuk,” the information outlet stated, noting that the sanctions utilized to 112 Ukraine, NewsOne, ZIK and their proprietor, Medvedchuk affiliate Taras Kozak.
In response to Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Motion Heart, though Kozak was the official proprietor of the tv channels, their actual beneficiary was Medvedchuk.
Zelensky stated on the time that the tv stations “carried out anti-Ukrainian propaganda” and “interfered with the method of the nation’s integration into the European Union.”
These sanctions personally affected Medvedchuk, who, alongside along with his spouse, was listed in a March 2021 investigation by the Safety Service of Ukraine on the financing of terrorism, Verstka wrote.
Three sources near Putin confirmed that these developments have been the ultimate straw in Putin’s choice to arrange to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “The Kremlin determined to not resort to the instruments of ‘smooth energy’ anymore.”
Putin was enraged by the “private assault” on Medvedchuk, a longtime acquaintance of Putin informed the unbiased media outlet.
Medvedchuk himself influenced the Russian president to invade Ukraine by repeatedly telling him about “pro-Russian sentiments in Ukraine.”
“He talked in regards to the loyalty of the territory, stupidly deceptive Putin,” a supply near the presidential administration stated.
The Kremlin did not query Medvedchuk’s phrases, a supply stated.
“As a substitute of drawing conclusions in regards to the adequacy of the knowledge obtained, analyzing and seeing the plain image that they don’t seem to be anticipated right here, resentment and anger clouded their eyes.”
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s international ministry for remark by way of e mail.
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