What you've twisted is you're essentially arguing the Kyiv regime isn't Ukranian. Putin sees the Kyiv regime as Western and an expansion of NATO influence, he says so in the speech I linked above.

If the special operation is having to defend against Western influence, and the Kyiv regime isn't Western, why is he shelling the Kyiv regime?

Your lie is arguing Putin never said they had to defend against Ukranian aggression. In my quote above, he talked about needing to act because of aggressive actions from the Kyiv regime. So either the Kyiv regime isn't Ukranian to you, or Putin did say they needed to defend against Ukranian aggression.

Putin feels the Kyiv regime is an extension of Western NATO influence, and he stated he had to act in defense against their aggression in DNR/LNR/Crimea. This is all in the speech I linked, not twisting any of his words at all.

So yes, Putin has absolutely argued he had to defend against "the regime in Kyiv", which I think most of the world would take to mean Ukraine. So it's pretty fair to say Russia phrased this as "defend against Ukraine", unless you are arguing the regime in Kyiv isn't Ukranian or Putin and the Kremlin aren't Russian.

Could you answer if you believe the Kyiv regime is Ukranian?