SinoDaily.com reports: “Russian President Vladimir Putin sought on Monday to defend his Ukraine offensive to Moscow’s allies, blaming the West for triggering the three-and-a-half year war that has killed tens of thousands and devastated much of eastern Ukraine.

‘This crisis was not triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West,’ Putin said at a summit of the the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Chinese city of Tianjin.

That is a reference to Ukraine’s 2013-2014 pro-European revolution, which ousted a pro-Russian president.

Moscow responded by annexing the Crimean peninsula and backing pro-Russian separatists in the east, triggering a civil war.

‘The second reason for the crisis is the West’s constant attempts to drag Ukraine into NATO,’ the Russian president added…”