MINSK, June 1. /TASS/. The US and Europe’s aspiration to prolong the hot phase of the Ukrainian conflict serves to destabilize the situation across the entire region, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said at a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services in Minsk on Thursday.

"The striving by Washington and European capitals to keep the hot phase of the conflict going, by supporting Kiev through financial and military largesse, is having a seriously destabilizing impact on the overall situation," he said.

Naryshkin pointed out that, as a result of the continuing Ukrainian conflict, "threats are increasing that combatants fighting in armed formations, as well as weapons and explosives, will infiltrate into the CIS countries from the combat zone."

"With regard to the region of the Commonwealth [of Independent States], the US and its European satellites are attempting to prevent integration processes from going forward, and are creating conditions for disrupting partnership relations and fomenting flashpoints both within the CIS space and around its perimeter," the SVR director said.

He reiterated that NATO is continuing to expand eastward and to ramp up its offensive capabilities.

Speaking of the situation in the southern direction, the intelligence chief highlighted the situation in Afghanistan, where international terrorist organizations became active. "A high level of risk remains of terrorist activities spilling over [from Afghan territory] and of radical ideologies spreading across the CIS countries," he concluded.