Russian President Vladimir Putin laid the blame for the war in Ukraine on the West in a video-link address to a security conference outside Moscow.
ADVERTISEMENTTop Russian military officials and their counterparts from Belarus, China, India, Middle Eastern and African nations attended the gathering.
In a pre-recorded video statement, the Russian president once again accused the West of fuelling the conflict “by pumping billions of dollars” into Kyiv and “supplying it with equipment, weapons, ammunition, sending their military advisers and mercenaries.”
“Everything is being done to ignite the conflict even more, to draw other states into it,” Putin said.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu sought to downplay the significance of the Western support for Ukraine, saying that despite all that support, Kyiv’s forces “fail to achieve results on the battlefield.”
China’s defence minister Li Shangfu spoke at the conference stressing open communications were vital in conflict resolution.
He said: “Whether in Afghanistan, Syria, the Korean Peninsula, Ukraine, or Iran on the nuclear issue, China is committed to promoting peace and negotiations, and building more international consensus.”
