MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev has said in an interview with aif.ru that Moscow isn’t at war with Kiev, but instead, the confrontation is an attempt by the West to use Ukrainians in its standoff with Russia.

"The events in Ukraine aren’t a clash between Moscow and Kiev. It’s a military confrontation of NATO, first of all the US and Britain, with Russia. Fearing a direct engagement, NATO instructors push Ukrainian men to certain death," he said.

Patrushev went on to say that Russia is using the special military operation to "free its regions from occupation and must put an end to the West’s bloody experiment to destroy the fraternal people of Ukraine."

"We are not at war with Ukraine because we can’t have hatred for ordinary Ukrainians by default," he said.

The official said Ukrainian traditions are familiar to Russians, just like the Russian heritage is inseparable from Ukrainian culture.

"Get this: the Ukrainian language is one of the official languages in Crimea. Ukrainian cultural centers, Ukrainian folk song and dance groups continue to exist in many cities. A considerable number of people in the south of the Far East regard Ukrainian culture as their own, given a large proportion of migrants from the times of Stolypin," he said, referring to Pyotr Stolypin, a prime minister of the Russian Empire in the early 1900s, who oversaw a resettlement policy.

"The sooner the people of Ukraine realize that the West is using them to wage a war on Russia, the more lives will be saved," Patrushev continued. "Many have realized that long ago, but they are afraid to say that publicly out of fear of reprisals. It’s not a part of the West’s plans to save someone’s life to the detriment of its enrichment and other ambitions. Even so, the Americans, the British and other Europeans often create an illusion that they protect civilization from barbarians."

According to the official, "all this story with Ukraine was engineered by Washington to rehearse the technologies of dividing a people that’s one and sow discord."

"Millions of people are prohibited from speaking Russian, their native language, and are forced to commit to oblivion their origins. The West, to serve its ambitions, is practically decimating the Ukrainian people, forcing the vigorous generation to die at the battlefield and bringing the rest of the people to poverty," he said.