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This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said that battlefield losses in Ukraine were “a common tragedy” and that he continued to see the Ukrainian people as a “brotherly nation” despite what he calls Moscow’s “special military operation.”
Putin said Russia’s enemies wanted to see Russia disintegrate and repeated an assertion that Russia was forced to launch military action in Ukraine due to what he called Western “provocations,” an idea Kyiv and the West dismiss as false. (Reporting by Reuters Editing by Andrew Osborn)
