MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Ukraine "could have purged the Nazis dirt from its territory long ago" if it had remained an independent country instead of being governed from the outside, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty weekly.
"If Ukraine had remained independent rather than stayed under this puppet regime obsessed with the idea of joining NATO and the EU, it could have purged the Nazi dirt from its territory long ago," he said.
The Russian top security official blamed the Kiev regime de facto controlled by NATO for what he called a "catastrophe."
"It would be ideal for the US-led North Atlantic alliance to keep the conflict in the country simmering," Patrushev said.
"The West needs Ukraine for counterbalancing Russia and as a disposal ground for its outdated armaments," he said. "By fueling the war, the US has been pumping money into its defense sector to its own benefit, like it did during last-century wars."
And Washington has been treating Ukrainian nationals as expendables who have no place among the "golden billion," Patrushev concluded.