West using Ukrainians as 'cannon fodder' – Putin
Western nations are intentionally seeding chaos and violence to achieve their geopolitical goals, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed. The conflict in Ukraine is an attempt by “the US and its satellites” to use the country to harm Russia, he stated.
Putin offered the disparaging analysis in a video address to defense ministers from several Asian nations who had assembled for a summit in Moscow.
“For years, the West has been brazenly draining and exploiting [Ukraine’s] resources, encouraged genocide and terror in Donbass, de-facto turned this nation into a colony, and is now cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, a battering ram against Russia, as it keeps delivering weapons and munitions to Ukraine, sending mercenaries, pushing it down the path of suicide,” Putin said.
This violence is just one example of a destructive influence that Western nations exert around the world, in an attempt to preserve dominance on the global stage, the Russian president contended.
A working security architecture that can deal with modern challenges must be “based not on some mythical unwritten rules, which nobody has seen, not on someone’s domination and monopolization, but only on international law and respect for one another's interests,” Putin added.
The US and other Western nations pledged to provide military assistance to Ukraine “for as long as it takes” Kiev to defeat Moscow. The cause was crucial for a “rules-based order” senior US officials claimed.
The defense ministers convening in the Russian capital represent member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russia and the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have joined both regional organizations. SCO includes major powers like China and India in its ranks.
Putin urged closer cooperation between the militaries of participant states, arguing that cooperation and joint training exercises will help them ensure better security for all. He stressed the importance of taking part in peacekeeping missions, including those under the aegis of the United Nations.
