Russia not fighting the Ukrainian people – security chief
The turmoil in Ukraine has been orchestrated by Washington to create a rift between Russians and Ukrainians, who are effectively a single people, the secretary of Russia’s national Security Council Nikolay Patrushev believes.
The senior official, who previously served as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) for over a decade, made the remarks in an interview with newspaper Argumenty i Fakty published Monday.
“We are not at war with Ukraine, because by definition we cannot hate ordinary Ukrainians. Ukrainian traditions are close to the people of Russia, just as the heritage of the Russian people is inseparable from the culture of Ukrainians,” Patrushev pointed out.
The whole “Ukrainian affair” has been staged by the US to sow discord and “hone the technologies of separating and pitting [parts of] one nation against each other,” the official said.
The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kiev, this is a military conflict between NATO –above all the US and the UK– and Russia. Being wary of a direct confrontation, NATO instructors are driving Ukrainians to their certain death,” Patrushev explained, arguing that Russia's military operation in Ukraine is seeking to “put the bloody experiment by the West in destroying our fraternal Ukrainian people to an end.”
Top Ukrainian officials have openly admitted that the country is fighting Russia on NATO’s behalf. Last week, for instance, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov said Kiev has been busy tackling Russia, deemed by the US-led bloc as the most significant threat in the Euro-Atlantic area.
“Today, Ukraine is addressing that threat. We’re carrying out NATO’s mission today, without shedding their blood. We shed our blood, so we expect them to provide weapons,” he said.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
Shortly before the hostilities broke out, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Last September, Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, were incorporated into Russia following referendums.
