ISTANBUL

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the true enemy of his country is the West rather than Ukraine itself.

“The point is not that they help our enemy, but they are our enemy, they solve their issues with their (Ukraine’s) hands,” Putin said during a meeting at a military hospital in the Moscow region.

Stating that this has been the case “for centuries” and that it continues today, Putin said that Ukraine itself is not an enemy for Russia, but rather those that intend to “destroy Russian statehood” and inflict a “strategic defeat” of Moscow on the front line.

“There are people who sympathize with us, but there are so-called (Western) elites for whom the existence of Russia, at least in its current quality, in its current size, as they think, is unacceptable,” Putin further said.

Russia’s president went on to argue that Western elites “nurtured” Ukraine for a long time in order to create the conflict seen today.

"Unfortunately for us, they achieved, created this conflict and are trying to solve their task with the help of Ukrainians, namely the task of fighting Russia,” he said.

Commenting on Ukraine’s recent strike on the Russian city of Belgorod which resulted in the death of 24 people, Putin said Russia should not strike back at places with civilian populations in Ukraine despite “everything boiling inside.”

He said that Russia will not leave “a single crime of this kind” go “unpunished,” further describing the strike that took place on Saturday as a "terrorist attack."

Ukraine's armed forces are doing this to intimidate Russia and create uncertainty in the country, Putin further said, adding: "But we, for our part, will increase the blows that I said."

He went on to say that Moscow wants to end the conflict "as quickly as possible” and "only on our terms.”