The standoff between Moscow and Kiev has turned into a major confrontation involving the West, Valentina Matvienko has said
FILE PHOTO: Top Russian senator, Valentina Matvienko © Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov
The outcome of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev will be felt in every corner of the globe, the top Russian senator, Valentina Matvienko, said on Saturday. The standoff has long surpassed the scale of a simple dispute between two neighbors and evolved into a “large-scale confrontation” with the “collective West,” she said in a statement on the second anniversary of the start of Russia’s military campaign.
“The fate of the future world order is being decided on the battlefields of the special military operation,” said the head of Russia’s Federation Council – the upper house of the national parliament. The struggle has made it clear that Washington and its allies seek global dominance, she said. The US and other Western nations want to “impose a new version of colonialism on the world” and build an international system based on the “rule of force,” the senator warned.
The West treats people as “dust,” Matvienko maintained, adding that the US and its allies care neither about the people of Donbass, who suffered persecution at the hands of Kiev for years, nor for Ukrainians themselves, who were blindly lured into a conflict with Russia by the West, she argued.
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Russia had sought to resolve the conflict between Kiev and Donbass through peaceful means for eight years, the senator said, adding that the Ukrainian government responded to those efforts with “anti-Russian policies, sabotage of the Minsk Agreements and terror against the Donbass population.”
Moscow is still ready to reach a peaceful settlement and is open to dialogue if its national security and the safety of its people are guaranteed, Matvienko said. Russia does not expect “any honesty, [or] decency” from the West, she stated, adding that the Russian government would now focus on protecting the Russian people and the “Russian world.”
The two years of conflict have clearly demonstrated that “Ukraine, together with the West or any other coalition is unable to inflict a strategic defeat on [Russia] on the battlefield,” she maintained.
The crisis has sped up the establishment of a multipolar world, the senator believes. Over the past few years, the role of such international groups as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has significantly increased, she said.
“We call on the world, on all friendly nations, to remember their sovereignty and to not hesitate to defend their interests, because it is something that needs to be really fought for nowadays,” Matvienko added.
