MOSCOW, January 25. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the West’s calls to continue beefing up the Ukrainian army for the sake of security on the European continent sound absurd.
Commenting on the assertion by The Washington Post that Ukraine’s security can be ensured by a strong army but not membership in NATO, he said: "Every day, you and I read many opinions. To our regret, we see a lot of manifestations of the convictions of a number of politicians, experts, military and so on who think that by continuing to wage war it is possible to ensure the continent’s security. This is an absurd conviction, this is a dead end way of thinking, both from a military and political perspective."
The Kremlin official stressed that the Russian side is deeply convinced of this. "We knew this a year ago and even a bit longer than a year ago when President Putin urged everyone to sit down at the negotiating table and discuss our concerns, when President Putin urged everyone to recall the several decades of NATO’s gradual advance toward Russia and when Putin cautioned that the continuation of this course cannot remain without consequences," he explained.
Peskov also added that "currently, such misconceptions are fraught with further continuation of this terrible period we are experiencing right now".