Ukraine’s presidential office responds to Putin's statement justifying war in Ukraine

Mykhailo Podolyak shared the response on Twitter.

Earlier, on the afternoon of January 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the reason for the start of the "special military operation" was the "war in Ukraine."

In his response, the advisor to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office used an allusion to George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984). 

"SVO (special military operation - ed.) is an attempt to end the war. War is peace. Slavery is freedom. The occupied lands of Donbas are a historical part of RF under the rogue name of L/DNR ” he tweeted.

He also emphasized that "there will be no epiphany," and negotiations with Russia are impossible, because Russia is focused on war only.

For reference: according to a short glossary of political science terms, Orwellism is a propaganda manipulation of facts, words, concepts and deliberate distortion of the truth, historical past, and truth by the authorities, which exert ideological influence on public morality through the media and seek to achieve complete control over society. The term is derived from the name of an English writer E. Blair (pseudonym J. Orwell; 1903-1950), the world-famous author of the dystopian novel 1984.

• Earlier, on January 18, Vladimir Putin said that "in fact, full-scale hostilities in Donbas have not stopped since 2014... Everything we are doing today, in particular in the 'special military operation', is an attempt to stop this war. This is the meaning of our "operation.”