Russia’s security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev has said the war in Ukraine has become “a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the US and Britain”. Patrushev, who is one of Putin’s closest allies, made the comments during an interview with Argumenti i Fakti newspaper, a Russian state media outlet. Patrushev claimed the plan from the West is to “continue to pull Russia apart, and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world”. The long-time Putin ally, who has known him since the 1970s, accused the US of being “a shell for a conglomerate of huge corporations that rule the country and try to dominate the world”.
Mr Patrushev said: “The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv – this is a military confrontation between Russia and Nato, and above all the United States and Britain.
“The Westerners’ plans are to continue to pull Russia apart, and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world.
“The Westerners seek to weaken our country, to dismember it, to destroy the Russian language and the Russian world.
“Fearing direct contact, NATO instructors are driving Ukrainian guys to certain death. The West, for the sake of its ambitions, is practically destroying the Ukrainian people, forcing the active generation to die on the battlefield and bringing the rest of the population to poverty.”
He added the West sees “no place” for Russia in the modern world, insinuating it was jealous of the nation’s “rich resources, vast territory and smart and self-sufficient people”.
Asked about Patrushev’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said NATO and the United States were part of the Ukraine conflict.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev is regarded by diplomats as one of the major hardline influences on Putin, who has promised victory in Ukraine despite a series of battlefield setbacks.
READ MORE: Macron vows to send Ukraine ‘to victory’ with new military aid [REVEAL]
