BELGRADE, February 28. /TASS/. Washington manipulated Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and pushed him into a conflict with Russia, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj said on Sunday.

"Zelensky took office as an actor and entertainer. The US manipulated Zelensky as much as possible and pushed him into a conflict with Russia, since only Washington benefits from this conflict, even Western Europe does not need it. The US wanted Russia to exhaust its power and strength somewhere, mess around with Ukraine and not be active anywhere else," the veteran politician said.

Seselj believes that Ukraine’s future lies in the country’s federalization. "Russians are not fools, they will not occupy all of Ukraine, but they will force this government or the next government to federalize the country, with federal subjects where the majority of the Russian population will have their own relations with Russia," he maintained.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the leaders of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian head of state stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later on Thursday that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed through the use of precision weapons. Civilians are not threatened, the Russian military assured.