Russia is at war, Kremlin spokesman admits; he previously spoke of a special operation

Later, according to the Kommersant newspaper, a Kremlin spokesman explained that the legal status of “special military operations” does not change, but in fact “it is a war for us”.

“Basically, after the collective West came into it all, it turned into a war. De jure it is a special military operation. It has de facto turned into a war for us after the collective West has more and more directly increased its level of involvement in the conflict. So the changes took place in essence, but not in the legal sense,” Peskov told the Kommersant FM radio station.

To the question, how is it with people who were convicted in Russia for anti-war appeals, especially for slogans “Not to war”, Peskov replied that there “is a completely different context”.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 after supporting pro-Russian separatists in a war with Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine for the previous eight years. Russian attacks since 2022 have claimed thousands of civilian casualties and displaced millions of people.

Russian authorities have long described the invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation”, which they defended by claiming that the neighboring state needed to be “demilitarized” and “denazified”.

The Kremlin spokesman also said that Russia will continue to work to ensure that Ukraine cannot threaten Russian citizens and Russian territory. According to him, the Kremlin cannot allow a state to exist on Russia’s borders that is willing to use any means to deprive Russia of the Crimean peninsula.

In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula to its territory in violation of international law. Kyiv and the West do not recognize the annexation.

Thank you for your attention to our online coverage of the conflict in Ukraine and related events. You can expect more fresh news again tomorrow morning. Until then, good night.

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