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Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country is not fighting against the people of Ukraine, but instead is facing down their leadership and outside forces who are using the country as a proxy. He claimed that Ukrainian soldiers are being used as cannon fodder by what he called the “neo-Nazi regime” in Kiev.

Reunification with Russia should probably have happened earlier, the president told the mothers of soldiers The Donbass republics should probably have rejoined Russia sooner, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the mothers of troops involved in the military operation in Ukraine on Friday. In such a case, fewer lives might have been…