MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of trying to foment extended hostilities in Ukraine as part of what he described Tuesday as alleged efforts by Washington to maintain its global hegemony.
Addressing a security conference attended by military officials from Africa, Asia and Latin America, Putin reaffirmed his long-standing claim that he sent troops to Ukraine in response to Washington turning the country into an “anti-Russia” stronghold. .
“They need conflicts to preserve their hegemony,” Putin charged. “That is why they have turned the Ukrainian people into cannon fodder. The situation in Ukraine shows that the United States is trying to prolong the conflict and acts in exactly the same way trying to fuel the conflicts in Asia, Africa and Latin America.”
The speech represented the Russian leader’s latest attempt to rally support amid sweeping Western sanctions that have targeted the Russian economy and finances along with its government structures, top officials and businesses for Moscow’s action in Ukraine.
Putin also drew parallels between US support for Ukraine and a recent visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing both of being part of an alleged US attempt to foment global instability. .
“The American adventure in Taiwan was not just a trip by a feckless politician. It was part of a deliberate and conscious US strategy aimed at destabilizing the situation and creating chaos in the region and the entire world, a blatant demonstration of disrespect for another country’s sovereignty and its own international obligations,” Putin said.
The Russian leader claimed that “Western globalist elites” were trying “to blame Russia for their own failures and Porcelain”, adding that “no matter how much the beneficiaries of the current globalist model try to cling to it, it is doomed”.
“The era of the unipolar world order is coming to an end,” he added.
Speaking at the same conference, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu charged that along with supplying weapons to Ukraine, Western allies also provided detailed intelligence and deployed instructors to help the Ukrainian military operate the weapons systems. .
“Western intelligence agencies have not only provided target coordinates to launch attacks, but Western specialists have also monitored the input of that data into weapons systems,” Shoigu said.
He dismissed accusations that Russia might use nuclear or chemical weapons in the conflict as an “absolute lie”.
“From a military point of view, there is no need to using nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve the set goals,” Shoigu said. “The primary mission of the Russian nuclear forces is to provide a deterrent against a nuclear attack.”
Shoigu added that the claims of a possible chemical attack by Russia were equally “absurd,” saying Moscow had completely liquidated its chemical weapons stockpiles in compliance with an international treaty banning chemical weapons.
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