Ukrainian foreign ministry: Putin’s habitual falsehoods on Ukraine exposed at SCO conference

KYIV – Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin once again resorted to his well-worn pattern of historical distortions and outright lies during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said. 

He is “gradually losing his ample lying skills” Tykhyi said while commenting on the Kremlin leader’s speech at the event. 

During the summit, Putin claimed that the war in Ukraine was allegedly triggered not by Russia’s invasion, but by a “state coup” in 2014 supposedly supported by the West.

“Sure, “the insidious West” provoked “poor Russia” to attack its neighbor and commit hundreds of thousands of war crimes,” Tykhyi said. “Putin is gradually losing his ample lying skills — his repetitive whoppers are getting increasingly dull.”

He said that the only way to counter such lies is through pressure on Moscow.

The SCO summit, held in Tianjin, China, ran from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1. More than 20 foreign leaders attended, including Belarusian self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The SCO was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined in 2017, Iran in 2023, and Belarus in 2024.