Ukraine’s MFA: Putin denied Ukraine’s right to exist long before Euromaidan

The root cause of Russia’s war against Ukraine is Vladimir Putin’s imperial ambitions, not the events of the Revolution of Dignity, which the Kremlin cites to justify its aggression.

This was stated by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi on the social media platform X, commenting on transcripts of meetings and phone calls between Putin and former U.S. President George W. Bush that were released by the U.S. National Security Archive, Ukrinform reports.

“Putin denied Ukraine’s right to exist in 2001. 21 years before full-scale invasion and 13 years before the Revolution of Dignity, which he often blames as the “root cause” for the war. The root cause has always been and remains the imperial tumor in his and other Russian heads,” Tykhyi emphasized.

As Ukrinform previously reported, according to verbatim transcripts released by the U.S. National Security Archive, in conversations with then U.S. President George W. Bush in the early 2000s, Vladimir Putin effectively asked for Russia to be admitted to NATO and complained about losing control over Ukraine.