TEHRAN, August 16. /TASS/. The US authorities should pay the peoples of Russia and Ukraine for the damage they have caused, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi said on Tuesday at the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security.
"The US and its allies must be held accountable for the harm done to the peoples of Russia and Ukraine," he said. According to the senior military officer, "NATO's ambitious development to the east was the main reason for what is happening in Ukraine today." "The US is trying to bolster its hegemony with sanctions," Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi added.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories; the goal was the demilitarization and denazification of the country. After that, the US, the EU, the UK, as well as some other states, imposed large-scale sanctions against Russia and increased arms supplies to the Ukrainian authorities.