White House: "There Is One Vladimir Putin, And This Man Decided To Invade Neighboring State"

The White House on Thursday dismissed Russian president Vladimir Putin's attempts to depict himself as a "peacemaker" in the South Caucasus, highlighting his brutal invasion of Ukraine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"... There is one Vladimir Putin, and this man decided, without provocation, to invade a neighboring state," John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said in response to TURAN's question of which Putin was real: Putin the peacemaker in the South Caucasus, or Putin the troublemaker in Ukraine?

Kirby was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the State Department's Washington Foreign Press Center, on the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy priorities.

According to him, the Biden administration doesn't believe that Putin's strategic goals have changed in Ukraine, and that he “doesn't want Ukraine to exist as a sovereign, independent nation state," as Kirby put it.

He also added that the U.S. sees "no indication" that the Russians plan to use a “dirty bomb” — a weapon combining conventional explosions with uranium — or other nuclear weapon in Ukraine

Asked by TURAN's correspondent about Putin's efforts to act as a "peacemaker" between Armenia and Azerbaijan, amid his escalating rhetoric in Ukraine, Kirby reminded the Russian president has been targeting neighboring Ukrainian cities and the Ukrainian people.

Per Kirby, there was "absolutely zero reason" for Putin to move across the border on February 24.

"That's the Vladimir Putin that we see," he said.  "....We see the leader of a military that clearly is willing to commit atrocities on innocent Ukrainian people, children."

The Russian military, Kirby added, has been raining down missiles, and "now using Irainian drones" for one purpose: to spread fair, to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

"We see a Vladimir Putin that is willing to lie to his troops about what they are being sent to Ukraine to do, or even that they are being sent to Ukraine," Kirby added.

Putin, he said, is willing to lie to his own people about this as he calls it "a special military operation"

"It's a war — plain and simple — a war he started. And it's a war he can end today... The Mr Putin that we're talking about... he could end it today by pulling his troops out of Ukraine" Kirby said, adding that the Russian leader "is not showing a willingness to do that.

"So that's the Mr Putin that we see," he emphasized.

Putin is reportedly planning to bring together Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sochi on October 31.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.