UPDATE - Putin says deaths in Gaza as shocking as those in Ukraine

ADDS FURTHER COMMENTS BY RUSSIAN PRESIDENT; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said the deaths in Gaza are as shocking as those that are occurring in Ukraine.

“I understand that this war (in Ukraine) cannot but shock me. Isn’t the bloody coup in Ukraine in 2014, followed by the war of the Kyiv regime against its people in Donbas, shocking? Isn’t the extermination of the civilian population in Palestine and the Gaza Strip shocking today?” Putin said in an address at the virtual G-20 leaders' summit.

“Isn’t it shocking that the secretary-general of the United Nations (António Guterres) said Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children?"

Putin said what is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy, and they must look for ways to stop it. “Yes, of course, military action is always a tragedy. Specific people, specific families, and the country as a whole. And, of course, we must think about how to stop this tragedy."

He said it was Ukraine that refused to negotiate and closed the way for dialogue through its adoption of an order prohibiting such a step, whereas Moscow was always ready to take such a step.

Russia says it launched its "special military operation" to “denazify” and “demilitarize” Ukraine, and protect the country's Russian-speaking population. The West, however, see the military campaign that started in February 2022 as a war of aggression.

Arguing that Moscow is trying to achieve justice in Ukraine, Putin said the stress in the global economy is not because of Russia, but due to the "ill-conceived macroeconomic policies" of other countries.

"The injection of trillions of dollars and euros into the economy and into the banking system, of course, provoked a surge in global inflation and a rapid rise in food and energy prices. This is precisely what lies at the heart of the events I spoke about. Not our actions and not our attempts to achieve justice in Ukraine. No. Precisely the actions of the world's largest economies," he said.

He added that "unfair methods of competition" are being used by some countries, which he said include not only the destruction of transport and logistics chains and international payment channels, but also "acts of state terrorism."

"A blatant example of this is the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline system, laid along the bottom of the Baltic Sea," he said.