MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. The United States and its satellites have been doing everything they can to exacerbate the Ukraine conflict they have ignited, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his article for North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper on the eve of his visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"The United States and its satellites openly declare that their objective is to inflict a `strategic defeat’ on Russia," Putin maintained. "They are doing everything they can to protract and further exacerbate the conflict in Ukraine, which they have themselves provoked by supporting and organizing the 2014 armed coup in Kiev and the subsequent war in Donbass," he added.
According to Putin, Moscow is open to dialogue to resolve existing issues. "Russia has always been and will remain open to equal dialogue on all issues, including the most difficult ones. I reiterated this at my recent meeting with Russian diplomats in Moscow," the Russian leader said.
"Our adversaries, meanwhile, continue to supply the neo-Nazi Kiev regime with money, weapons and intelligence information, allow - and, effectively, encourage - the use of modern Western weapons and equipment to deliver strikes on the Russian territory, aiming at obviously civilian targets in most cases," the Russian president lamented. "They are threatening to send their troops to Ukraine. Furthermore, they are trying to wear out Russia’s economy with more new sanctions and fuel socio-political tension inside the country," he concluded.