West ‘definitely’ taking part in Ukraine conflict – Kremlin
The US and NATO are already taking part in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, although indirectly, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday. He was commenting on a statement made earlier by the secretary of Russia’s national security council, Nikolay Patrushev, who called the ongoing hostilities a "confrontation of NATO… with Russia."
"Both NATO and the US are definitely taking part in this conflict, although indirectly, by proxy," Peskov said, adding that, although both Washington and Brussels maintain they have no intention of getting involved in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, "de facto they have already become an indirect party" to it.
The US and its allies, including the NATO nations, "pump Ukraine full of arms, [share] technologies, and intelligence data… Their involvement in this conflict is obvious," the spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin said.
Moscow does not believe that any of its actions could further provoke the US and NATO into increasing their military aid to Kiev since it is already happening, Peskov said. "We see that increases in [military] supplies come on a daily basis," the Kremlin spokesman said, adding that increasingly more powerful weapons are getting delivered in larger quantities as Western nations intensify their training of Ukrainian troops.
The Kremlin spokesman also said that Patrushev was absolutely right in his assessment, which simply "acknowledged the facts on the ground." "This is nothing but the indirect involvement of those nations in the conflict," Peskov maintained, adding that Moscow "thoroughly records" all such developments.
Earlier on Tuesday, the National Security Council secretary said that the ongoing conflict is a proxy confrontation between the US, NATO and Russia since Brussels and Washington "fear a direct standoff." Patrushev also accused the West of sacrificing other people’s lives for their "enrichment and ambitions."
Washington and its allies in Europe have repeatedly stated they would like to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia and has denied being party to the ongoing conflict. Yet, they have been supplying Kiev’s forces with a wide variety of arms, including self-propelled howitzers and multiple rocket launchers.
Russia has repeatedly warned that continued Western arms shipments to Kiev would only prolong the conflict and extend human suffering, as well as pose a risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and the West.
