Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused NATO members of entering the Ukraine conflict by donating arms to the country and said the West planned to break Russia up.
“They are sending tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine. This really is participation,” Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel that aired on Sunday.
“This means that they are taking part, albeit indirectly, in the crimes being carried out by the Kyiv regime,” Putin said.
He said Western countries had “a single aim — to break up the former Soviet Union and its main part — the Russian Federation”.
“Only then will they maybe accept us in the so-called family of civilized peoples but only separately, every part separately.”
Putin was speaking on the sidelines of a patriotic concert held in Moscow on Thursday on the eve of the first anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale offensive in Ukraine.
In the interview, Putin also reiterated his calls for a multipolar world and said he had “no doubt” that this would happen.
