ASTANA, April 26. /TASS/. The conflict in Ukraine was caused by Washington, and today it actively prolongs it, in this way showing that it will stop at nothing to cling to global dominance, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.
"The US first caused the Ukrainian conflict and is now purposefully dragging it," Shoigu said at a meeting of SCO defense ministers.
The top defense official added that in order to achieve its goals, Washington is exerting unprecedented pressure, including on its partners, making them their dutiful servants.
According to Shoigu, there are many examples of the US interfering in the affairs of sovereign states, including swapping out undesirable regimes. "These are Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria," the minister listed.
Shoigu added that financial, political, diplomatic and, in some cases, violent methods are widely used as instruments of influence. "This technique is very well worked out: fomenting and maintaining hotbeds of instability in various regions of the world, generating security threats while simultaneously offering military assistance to neutralize them," the top Russian defense official said.