Putin confidant criticizes US Moscow expects Ukraine to split into several small states
April 26, 2022, 4:15 pm
According to the Russian leadership, the US attempt to create a counterpoint to Russia outside Ukraine will eventually lead to the division of Ukraine.
“The outcome of the policy of the West and the Kiev regime it controls can only lead to the disintegration of Ukraine into several states,” Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev told the state-run Rossisskaya Gazeta newspaper on Tuesday.
In the interview, Patrushev accused the United States of injecting Ukrainians with nationalism and inciting them against Russia. “But hatred can never become a reliable factor in national unity,” said a confidant of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. Russia justifies its war against Ukraine on the basis that the leadership in Kiev oppresses “ethnic Russians” and the Russian-speaking part of the population.
While the Kremlin initially described the military operation as merely a protective measure for Moscow-recognized pro-Russian separatist regimes in Donetsk and Luhansk, last week a high-ranking army general also pointed to capturing southern Ukraine as a goal. Recently, speculation has increased that a referendum on secession would be organized in the Cherson region of southern Russia.