in the campaign “Beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War: Armed Invasion and Occupation of Crimea (2014)”
The official denial of Russian troops' participation during the operation – and Putin's later admission (call-in show, 17 April 2014) that the denial was a lie: "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood"[1]. In the same broadcast an interlocutor congratulated him on having "honestly said that the 'little green men' are our peaceful military"[1].