Almost two years into the war in Ukraine, a Russian journalist has worryingly claimed the final goal of the conflict in Europe has been moved.
Broadcaster and propagandist Dmitry Kiselev claimed upon appearing at an event in China that Russia is fighting against a “coalition of 50 countries” that are supporting Ukraine and which, he alleged, want to defeat his nation on the battlefield.
According to a translation by Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Kiselev said at the 2nd Yunnan International Communication Forum: “Now this war continues, but if initially the goals were narrow, for example the denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine.
“Now the scale of the goals after the West has engaged 50 countries, a coalition of 50 countries for Ukraine, and delivered there the sums of military budgets and weapons exceeding the annual budgets of Russia, and proclaimed the goal of strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield, the nature of this campaign and the goals have changed.”
In a chilling warning to the West, the propagandist suggested Vladimir Putin is ready to take on the whole world.
He said: “[The goals] have become global. This is a war for the new world order.”
Mr Kiselev is a powerful propagandist with close ties with the Russian President. In 2013, Putin appointed him head of Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian state-controlled media group.
Two years prior, he was awarded the Order of Friendship – a medal rewarding Russians and foreigners who worked for the betterment of relations with the Russian Federation and its people.
The journalist is best known for being the host of Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week), a weekly news programme on the domestic Rossiya 1 TV channel on which he regularly hits out at the West and speculates about Western-led conspiracies as well as denigrating Putin’s political enemies.
The propagandist’s warning came amid an apparent increase in direct threats to the Western military alliance by Russian personalities. In late November, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov claimed the Kremlin is ready for a war with NATO.
He said: “The people who continue to test us for strength must believe that there are no limits to their own ‘gambling’, in a game of raising the stakes. But they may end up among the losers.”
The Russian official also said intruding into Russian interests meant going down a “dangerous path” as Moscow had already demonstrated it’s “ready to defend our national interests with all the means at our disposal”.
Further provocations against the West came on Wednesday, when the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova claimed the F-16 fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by NATO will become a legitimate target for Russian military personnel.
She added that the risks of a direct military clash with the Western military alliance are increasing.
In late summer, several countries including The Netherland and Denmark, both NATO members, pledged to send to Ukraine their F-16s.
