MINSK, December 14. /TASS/. The West will try to preserve the anti-Russia regime in Ukraine while continuing to use the country’s territory for military purposes, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said.
"Indeed, politicians and government officials in Western countries realize the failure of the Ukrainian armed forces’ summer and fall counteroffensive against the Russian army, but still, they are unwilling to abandon their hypocritical strategy of using Ukraine as an expendable commodity, seeking to cause as much damage to Russia as possible," he told reporters following the 19th Meeting of Heads of Security and Intelligence Agencies from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member states.
"[They] are certainly trying to preserve a Russia-hating puppet regime in Ukraine and will try to use Ukraine’s territory for military purposes in the future," Naryshkin pointed out.
According to the SVR chief, Moscow warned Washington and its satellites that "any attempts to use Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia are bound to fail." "Moreover, they will lead to very negative consequences for the countries of the Western bloc, to say nothing of Ukraine. What is happening in Ukraine and the West is case in point," he noted.
Naryshkin also stressed that Russia was categorically against allowing the West to take advantage of a pause to rearm the Ukrainian armed forces to turn the tables on Russia. "We will not let this happen. Russia is determined to remove all factors that threaten national security. This certainly requires demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine and ensuring its non-bloc and neutral status," the SVR director concluded.