Barack Obama calls Putin ‘ruthless’, his Ukraine moves ‘reckless’

Former US President Barack Obama stated in an interview aired Tuesday on NBC that Russian President Vladimir Putin is acting in a new reckless manner with his invasion of Ukraine.

“Putin has always been ruthless against his own people as well as others. He has always been somebody who’s wrapped up in this twisted, distorted sense of grievance and ethnic nationalism,” Obama said. “That part of Putin, I think, has always been there. What we’ve seen with the invasion of Ukraine is him being reckless in a way that you might not have anticipated eight, 10 years ago, but the danger was always there.”

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The former president declined to directly respond to a question on what he would have done differently in hindsight while in power, especially when Russia took Crimea in 2014.

Instead, he emphasised the importance of “not take our own democracy for granted” and “stand for and align ourselves with those who believe in freedom and independence.”

According to Russian state news agency TASS, Vladimir Putin had stated earlier in the day that his country’s military objectives in Ukraine are “noble” and will be met.

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Putin stated Tuesday at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia, where he was meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, that the “special operation” in Ukraine was necessary because Russia “had no other choice.”

Putin stated that the “special military operation” aims to assist the people of Donbas and “takes measures to ensure the security of Russia itself.”

“Obviously, we had no other choice, that’s right. And there is no doubt that the goals [of the special operation] will be achieved,” Putin revealed on Tuesday.

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“The main goal is to help people in Donbas, the people of Donbas, which we recognized, were forced to do this because the Kyiv authorities, pushed by the West, refused to comply with the Minsk agreements aimed at a peaceful solution to the problems of Donbas,” Putin added.