During his June 13 meeting with military correspondents, Russian President Vladimir Putin refuted any notion that Moscow has not responded to NATO’s repeatedly crossing Russia’s red lines. “Listen,” he said in response to Ilya Ushenin from NTV, “is the special military operation itself not a response to them crossing these lines? This is the first and the most important point. We said many times ‘Do not do this, let’s do that, we are ready for talks.’ In the end, they prompted us to try to use force to end the war that they started in 2014. They keep telling us, ‘You started the war, Putin is the aggressor.’ No, they are the aggressors, they started this war, and we are trying to stop it, but we are compelled to do so with the use of the Armed Forces. Is this not the answer to their crossing the red lines? This is my first point.”
Putin’s second point was that not everything is covered by the media. “Are strikes on Ukraine’s energy system not an answer to them crossing the red lines?” he said. “And the destruction of the headquarters of the main intelligence directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine outside Kiev, almost within Kiev’s city limits, is it not the answer? It is.” While Putin didn’t mention it except by implication, the campaign against Ukraine’s electrical system was a direct response to the terrorist attack on the Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea on Oct. 8, 2022.