Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States and its allies on Tuesday of “add fuel to the fire” in the conflict in Ukraine and other regions of the world.
“The United States seeks, among other things, to redefine the system of relations between countries that has developed in the Asia-Pacific region,” said the president, who again baselessly called Ukraine, the country that invaded last year. “In the example of Ukraine it is clear what this policy of adding fuel to the fire leads to. By injecting billions of dollars into the neo-Nazi regime, giving it equipment, weapons, ammunition, sending military advisers and mercenaries, everything possible is done to further ignite the conflict,” the Russian president cried in a recorded message for participants in the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security.
The Kremlin chief added that there are latent sources of tension in other regions of the world and that “all of them are generated by the geopolitical adventures, selfish, neocolonial actions of the West.”
Russia’s defense minister added to this rhetoric by saying that Ukraine is “almost exhausted” and noting that the war has exposed vulnerabilities in Western defense systems. Sergei Shoigu admitted that the Ukraine conflict has been a serious test for Russia.
But “the Russian military has debunked many myths about the superiority of Western military standards,” Shoigu boasted in a public speech, according to a text provided by his ministry in which he did not provide detailed evidence to back up any of his statements.
“Preliminary results of combat operations show that Ukraine’s military resources are almost exhausted,” Shoigu said, vowing to share details about the weaknesses of Western weapons soon. “We have data on the destruction of German tanks, American armored vehicles, British missiles and other systems.” “We are ready to share our assessments… with our partners,” he promised at a session of the security conference attended by Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu. “Bilateral relations between Russia and China have surpassed the level of strategic ties in all respects, becoming more than just allies,” Shoigu boasted.
Seeking complicity with the Chinese side, Shoigu asserted that the West is intentionally stoking the situation around Taiwan, comparing the situation to the war in Ukraine. Moscow is increasingly turning towards Asia. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Putin exchanged letters pledging to develop their ties into what Kim called a “long-lasting strategic relationship.”
Shoigu avoided mentioning Russia’s losses in the conflict, hours after Russia’s armed forces confronted an attempt by a group of Ukrainian saboteurs to cross the border into Russia’s Bryansk region, the region’s governor said. Alexander Bogoma.
