All I can find when I try to look into it is an AI overview claiming it with no source, but search is shit these days and heavily favors new news, so maybe you’re right and they have technically at some point made the claim.

But let’s look at what Putin had to say when the “special military operation” began:

“The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime,” Putin said in a televised address. “To this end, we will seek to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Now he makes a lot of claims there, but they’re not the point right now, so let’s try to not get distracted. Let’s focus on the part where he claims they attacked first because this is surely where he’d make that claim, right at the start when first trying to justify their actions, right? Except it isn’t there. Because it’s horse shit, and not even Putin can say it with a straight face.