ST. PETERSBURG, July 26. /TASS/. It was not Russia who started the war; Russia is responding to the hostilities unleashed by Kiev with the West’s support, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"You surely see, when you enter liberated settlements, what’s happening or has happened there. The question is: why is this happening? And is it because of Russia’s aggression? The so-called aggression. No, of course not. And there is no aggression at all, because, as I have said many times before and want to emphasize once again, we didn’t start any war. We merely began responding to the hostilities, to the war that the current Kiev regime, with Western support, unleashed against what was then southeastern Ukraine, a region that had always leaned toward Russia," he said at a meeting with Russian Navy servicemen.