The "civilized world" prefers not to notice the horror and genocide in Donbas, said Russian President Vladimir Putin in his address to the Russians, RIA Novosti reported.

"And the so-called 'civilized world,' the only representatives of which declared themselves in a self-proclaimed manner our Western partners, prefers not to notice it. As if there is nothing, all that horror, the genocide to which almost 4 million people are subjected. And just because those people did not agree with the 2014 Western-backed coup in Ukraine, they opposed the state movement leading to nationalism, cavemanship, and aggressive nationalism, and neo-Nazism. And they are fighting for the basic rights to live on their own land, to speak in their mother tongue, to preserve their culture and traditions. How long can this tragedy continue? How long can one endure?" Putin said.