Putin: They'd like to tear us apart like they did Yugoslavia

Putin: They'd like to tear us apart like they did Yugoslavia

Speaking about Ukraine, he said that Kiev was pushing the country into the abyss by sending tanks and planes against its own citizens instead of engaging in negotiations.

The president rejected as absurd claims that there were Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, and said the local population took up arms in order to defend itself.

Putin referred to the latest moves of the Ukrainian authorities as "a serious crime" and added that a solution can be reached only by compromise, but that negotiations with Kiev will not take place "until they come to their senses."

"The launch of a military operation is one of the most serious crimes of the current authorities in Kiev. Have they gone insane? Sending tanks, planes, armored vehicles, weapons. Against whom? Against their own people, have they really lost their minds," Putin wondered.

He also said that "the new head of state cannot be elected in Ukraine without amending the constitution in the country, which still has its legitimate president," RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian leader stressed that he hoped he would not have to send the troops to Ukraine, and admitted for the first time that ahead of the referendum in Crimea, Russian soldiers were present there.

According to ITAR-TASS, Putin said he "never kept it a secret with his foreign colleagues that Russian military helped to provide security during the Crimean referendum so that there would be no tanks, combat detachments of nationalists and extremist-oriented people armed with automatic weapons.”

“That is why Crimean forces of self-defense were backed up by our troops, who acted in an appropriate, but determined and professional way,” the president said.

However, the Russian president said that this does not mean that Crimea was taken by force, but only that "conditions were created in an adequate manner" for the inhabitants of Crimea to make their decisions.

Putin also stated that he hoped he would not have to use the right to order the deployment of Russia’s military forces in Ukraine:

“I remind you that the Russian Federation Council has given the president the right to use the armed forces in Ukraine. I hope that I won’t have to use this right and that we will be able to solve all the pressing problems in Ukraine today by political and diplomatic means."

Asked about relations with the EU, Putin said: "It's hard to talk with people who whisper in their own homes, out of fear that Americans are eavesdropping on them."

Putin also said that "relations of trust and cooperation between Russia and China, including those on approaches to international problems, are at an unprecedented level."