When announcing his war, aka 'totes special military operation bruz', Putin did not cite any border dispute, rather he claimed it was about Nazis, druggoes, NATO, etc etc. Before the war he had not claimed any Ukrainian territory, there was never once any formal complaint about the border, in fact before the war he formally recognised the micro Russian-created terror states of the DNR/LNR as independent countries. Only well after he invaded did Putin decided to announce he was going to annexe territory for Russia.
Calling it a 'border dispute' is wilfully misleading.
