“The West Uses the Ukrainian People as Cannon Fodder,” Says Putin

The West is making every effort to maintain its dominance, and the Ukrainian people have become victims of these ambitions. Russian President Vladimir Putin made this statement in a video address to participants at the meeting of defense officials from Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states.

“Today we see the heavy consequences of such actions in Ukraine. For several years, the West shamelessly consumed and exploited its resources, encouraging genocide and terrorism in Donbas, effectively turning this country into a colony and now cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, as a shield against Russia, continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition and sending mercenaries, pushing it towards a path of self-destruction,” said Putin.

The United States had bet on NATO’s aggressive expansion, which has effectively destroyed the architecture of strategic stability that had been built over decades.

To include alternative development models, the West applies illegal sanctions, uses “color revolution” technologies, and incites military conflicts, the Russian leader claimed.

“The nature and scale of modern threats impose high demands on the cooperation of our defense departments. It is necessary to work together to create a more flexible and stable security and cooperation system that is adequate to current challenges, and it can be based not on some mythical unwritten rules that no one has seen, nor on someone's dominance and monopoly, but only on international law and respect for each other's interests,” emphasized Putin.

He noted the importance of continuous information exchange and the development of military-technical cooperation within the framework of the SCO and CIS. He also highlighted the exceptional importance of joint peacekeeping missions.

Russia respects the longstanding traditions of cooperation in military personnel training and intends to further develop this area, the Russian leader emphasized.