| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russian defense minister Shoigu demands UK explain the special forces in Ukraine |
| 2022-02-12 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [RIA Novosti] Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, during a meeting with his British counterpart Ben Wallace in Moscow, suggested that Western countries contribute to reducing tensions in Europe and stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. “It’s coming from all sides, it’s being done publicly. It’s being done in a revealing way. It’s not entirely clear why. I would also like to understand why Britain, the kingdom, sent its special forces to Ukraine and how long it will stay there,” Shoigu said. The minister cited the situation in Afghanistan as an example, when the country was pumped with weapons, which, after the withdrawal of the Western military, fell into the hands of terrorists. In turn, the head of the British defense department said that he listened to the assurances of the Russian military about the absence of plans to invade Ukraine, and he takes them seriously. According to Shoigu, the military-political situation on the European continent has deteriorated significantly and this requires urgent measures to be taken to ensure security guarantees for Moscow. "The Russian Defense Minister briefly commented on the responses received from the United States and NATO on Russian draft agreements on this issue. He focused on the lack of responses to the key demands of the Russian Federation: refusal to expand NATO, non-deployment of strike weapons near Russian borders, as well as the return of military capabilities and infrastructure bloc in Europe to the position of 1997, when the Russia-NATO Founding Act was signed, pointed out that it is impossible to reduce military-political tensions and build a solid European security architecture without resolving these issues," the report says. At the same time, the parties noted the importance of continuing contacts on preventing incidents and reducing the risks of unintentional conflicts. Shoigu stressed that the Russian Defense Ministry is ready to consider proposals for restoring bilateral military cooperation. "This is our first meeting in recent years. Unfortunately, the level of our cooperation is close to zero and is about to cross the zero meridian and go negative, which I really would not like. Therefore, I really hope to have the opportunity to discuss the most pressing issues with you without any or escalating and raising the temperature even higher in relations between Russia and the countries of the NATO bloc, and especially with Great Britain," the minister said. He noted that recently in the speeches of British officials, threats of sanctions have appeared through the line, and he would not like this meeting to become a continuation of such rhetoric. |
| Posted by:badanov |