WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday derisively called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to acknowledge reality and pull troops from Ukraine after he finally called the conflict a “war”.Since Mr Putin ordered the invasion in February, Russia has officially spoken of a “special military operation” and imposed a law that criminalises what authorities call misleading terminology.“Since Feb 24, the United States and rest of the world knew that Putin’s ‘special military operation’ was an unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine.“As a next step in acknowledging reality, we urge him to end this war by withdrawing his forces from Ukraine.”The State Department said that, whatever Mr Putin’s terminology, “Russia’s aggression against its sovereign neighbour has resulted in death, destruction and displacement.”“The people of Ukraine no doubt find little consolation in Putin stating the obvious, nor do the tens of thousands of Russian families whose relatives have been killed fighting Putin’s war.”A Russian court, earlier this month, sentenced an opposition politician, Ilya Yashin, to eight and a half years in prison under the new law over his “false information” about the war.An opposition lawmaker critical of the invasion, Mr Nikita Yuferev, on Friday said he was seeking legal action against Mr Putin for spreading “fake news” over his “war” reference."