Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Russia will continue the “special military operation” in Ukraine despite “massive aid from the West” to Kyiv and sanctions against Moscow.
“Despite the large-scale Western aid to the Kyiv regime and the pressure of sanctions on Russia, we will continue the special military operation until all objectives are completed,” Shoigu told a meeting of defense officials of the Treaty Organization. of Collective Security (OTSC).
Hours earlier, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, stated that Russia has not set specific deadlines for the duration of the military campaign in Ukraine.
Both senior Russian officials made these statements on the same day that three months have passed since the beginning of the Russian military intervention in the neighboring country.
Shoigu insisted on Tuesday that Moscow “was forced” to intervene in Ukraine to protect the inhabitants of Donbas, in the east of the country, and guarantee the “non-nuclear and neutral status” of Ukraine.
The Russian minister regretted that the West ignored Russian security concerns about NATO not enlarging and not embedding offensive weapons near the country’s borders.
“They did the opposite,” he said.
Shoigu assured that currently, the West continues to send military advisers to Ukraine, where nearly 6,000 foreign mercenaries are already fighting.
He also denounced pressure against Moscow’s allies in the CSTO post-Soviet alliance and added that the circumstances require greater unity among the former Soviet countries.
“Russia will continue to provide the necessary help to its allies so that they can neutralize the threats that arise and defend their sovereignty,” he promised.
In this sense, he assured that Russia is determined to continue strengthening ties within the framework of the CSTO, in which Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan also participate, in the face of Western attempts to “dynamite relations” between the members. of the alliance. (I)
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