US created Ukraine conflict – Shoigu
The US is behind the Ukraine conflict and is deliberately trying to prolong the fighting, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday. He was speaking during a meeting with his counterparts from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a nine-strong political, economic and defense organization.
Shoigu identified Washington as a major source of global instability, citing its record of military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The US also uses financial and diplomatic tools to damage its adversaries and fuel chaos in different parts of the world, he claimed.
“The US had first created, and now is deliberately prolonging the Ukraine conflict,” the minister stated. “As it signals purported intention to de-escalate, the West keeps pumping Kiev with weapons.”
Ukraine cannot properly manage the donations, however, which increases the risk that the funds could go to terrorist groups, Shoigu warned. He also pointed to direct NATO involvement in the ongoing Ukraine conflict.
“They provide real-time intelligence, train Ukrainian troops, deploy Western military specialists and mercenaries on the battlefield,” Shoigu noted.
The US and its allies claim that Russia launched an “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine in February 2022, and they have since sent tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Kiev.
Shoigu accused the US of double standards regarding a nation’s right to self-defense. He cited Washington’s blocking of a UN Security Council resolution which would have condemned Israel for attacking an Iranian consulate in Damascus in early April. Tehran’s eventual retaliatory attack was the result of US obstructionism, the Russian minister said, in reference to SCO's newest member.
Iran joined the SCO last year bringing the total membership of the group, which also includes India and China and accounts for some 20% of global GDP, to nine countries.
