Russian Defense Minister Affirms Ukraine Is a U.S. Pretext To Eliminate Russia as a Rival

Aug. 24 (EIRNS)—Defense ministers of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met in Tashkent, Uzbekistan today and were addressed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. At the outset, Shoigu stated that the SCO was becoming a new center of international power, and forcefully asserted that “the conflict in Ukraine is just another pretext … to strategically deplete Russia to eliminate rivalry and warn other states pursuing an independent foreign policy.”

He elaborated that, under the conditions of a turbulent international environment, “the role of the SCO as a new center of power, a model of relations between states based on equality and mutual respect, a guarantor of international law is steadily growing,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported on its Telegram channel. “Therefore,” he stressed, “it is important to strengthen cooperation in the military sphere and consult regularly in bilateral and multilateral formats on issues of common security. Such approaches are documented in the outcome documents prepared for signature during the current meeting.”

The U.S. and its Western allies, on the other hand, “are exerting unprecedented pressure on independent states to maintain global dominance. To this end they use blatant blackmail, threats, color revolutions and coups, and spread gross disinformation,” Shoigu said. “Confrontational actions and sanctions imposed by the West are worsening the situation in the global economy, ruining communications, and artificially creating a food crisis.”

“Today, a tough sanctions and information war has been unleashed against Russia. And the conflict in Ukraine is just another pretext for this,” Shoigu continued. “The aim of the U.S. and its allies is to strategically deplete Russia to eliminate rivalry and warn other states pursuing an independent foreign policy.” He noted, however, that Russia has made “significant efforts to establish a legal basis for stability in Europe in the new environment.”

“However, the West, led by Washington, refused to take into account our concerns regarding guarantees of mutual security, first and foremost the neutral status of Ukraine,” Shoigu said. The issues of principle for the Russian side—not to expand NATO to the East, not to deploy shock weapons and to refrain from military activities near Russian borders—were ignored, he continued. “Ukraine has been chosen as an instrument of hybrid warfare against Russia.”

After describing the conduct of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Shoigu went on to point out that the U.S./NATO threat is also aiming at China. “As far as the southern flank of our Organization—Southeast Asia—is concerned, there is also a complex set of complex interstate contradictions and hotbeds of tension with a hard-to-predict scenario of events. Washington is attempting to fracture the regional security architecture to ensure global hegemony,” Shoigu said.

To this end, he noted, politico-military blocs are being created, such as: QUAD and AUKUS. “The states in the region are engaged in cooperation with NATO. Similar to Europe, a front is being formed to deter China. The so-called Taiwan problem is being deliberately aggravated, and territorial disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea are being fueled,” Shoigu said. According to him, “security in this region can only be ensured through joint efforts taking into account the interests of all states, with ASEAN and other multilateral cooperation mechanisms playing a central role.”