Putin: "We have not set ourselves the task of destroying Ukraine"

"We have not set ourselves the task of destroying Ukraine," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference in Astana after the meeting of the CIS Heads of State Council.

According to Report, Putin explained the annexation of Crimea as follows:

"They (Ukraine - ed) cut off Crimea's water supply. The troops entered there and restored the water supply. If they didn't do it, countermeasures wouldn't have been taken."

The Russian President said that there is no need for massive air and missile strikes at the moment.

According to him, 222,000 people out of 300,000 citizens have been mobilized, and 33,000 of them are already in the military units:

"16,000 of those mobilized are carrying out combat tasks."

The Russian President also said that he does not regret the events in Ukraine.

"I don't have any regrets."