Our real war is with Britain and the US, Putin’s crony warns
A CLOSE ally of Vladimir Putin yesterday insisted Russia is at war with Britain and the Us rather than ukraine after Western pledges of more weapons and equipment.
The UK is leading a push to provide main battle tanks so the ukrainians can break through Russian lines while the US has promised to send hundreds of armoured fighting vehicles.
Western nations previously refused to provide tanks and the vehicles, fearing the move might dangerously escalate the conflict. But, with the war entering a new phase, the UK is poised to send about a dozen Challenger tanks armed with 120mm guns with a range of two miles.
UK defence sources hope the move will encourage the US and European allies such as France and Germany to contribute tanks also.
Yesterday the Kremlin insisted the provision of such equipment meant it was facing a Western attempt to destroy Russia. In a newspaper interview Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said: ‘The events in ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv.
‘This is a military confrontation between Russia and Nato, and above all the united States and
Britain. The Westerners’ plans are to continue to pull Russia apart and eventually just erase it from the political map of the world.
‘The united States has sown chaos in Afghanistan, Vietnam and the Middle East, and had been trying for years to undermine Russia’s unique culture and language.’
He added: ‘Russia was a victim of Western designs to push it back to the borders of 15th century Muscovy. The West is bleeding ukraine to undermine Russia. There is no place for our country in the West.’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow: ‘De facto they [uK and uS] have already become an indirect party to this conflict, pumping ukraine with weapons, technologies, intelligence information and so on.’
The uK and the uS strongly deny claims the West has an agenda beyond assisting ukraine to restore territorial sovereignty. Meanwhile, the parents of a British volunteer missing in ukraine yesterday told of their heartache. Chris Parry, 28, vanished with fellow Briton Andrew Bagshaw, 48, as they evacuated civilians in wartorn areas near Bakhmut and Kramatorsk.
They are said to have been helping to take supplies to the front lines and evacuate residents to safety.
ukrainian police said the pair left Kramatorsk to drive to the nearby town of Soledar last Friday, but never made it to their destination and all contact was lost. A family statement said: ‘We are very worried and concerned about the health and whereabouts of Chris right now.
‘He is an extraordinary person who is compassionate and caring and would not be dissuaded from his work in ukraine liberating elderly and disabled people, which we are very proud of.’
Mr Parry’s mother Christine said: ‘It’s all very raw at the moment.’
The volunteer, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was a running coach before he travelled to ukraine in March to sign up as a foreign fighter. But he was told his lack of combat experience would make him a ‘ hindrance’ and instead channelled his efforts into evacuations.
Mr Bagshaw was born in the uK but lived in New Zealand and was operating with the Kiwi Aid and Refugee Evacuation group.
‘They want to pull Russia apart’