MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The Ukrainian office of the US Agency for International Development sought to set the country on a collision course with Russia and convince Kiev it could defeat Moscow, Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Alexander Dubinsky said.
"If 90% of Ukrainian media were funded by USAID under the direction of [former US President Joe] Biden and [former Secretary of State Antony] Blinken, then they were systematically financed to promote war propaganda," he wrote on Telegram. "Essentially, the entire role of USAID and the Soros-backed organizations in Ukraine was to push for an imminent conflict with Russia by misleading the population and convincing them that Ukraine would win."
The lawmaker mentioned "constant assurances" about the invincibility of the Ukrainian armed forces and supplies of international aid, while anyone who advocated for peace immediately saw their reputation in shatters.
"For me, the label 'funded by USAID/Soros' is equivalent to 'funded by Nazis/Hitler.' I believe that all media and bloggers who cooperated with this evil should disappear or get sentenced," Dubinsky wrote.
His remarks follow a statement from Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who accused USAID of being involved in a series of crimes and called for holding the culprits to account. Volodin said the agency had played a role in orchestrating government overthrows worldwide by financing programs to train activists, election monitors and journalists. He named Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela as some of the countries affected by such "efforts to promote democracy.".