Sending Troops To Ukraine Means War With Russia, Warns Putin

New Delhi: Even as India and the United States of America try to help reach a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin warned the European nations against backing Ukraine in the ongoing conflict, saying any such misstep would mean “war with Russia.” He added that the current crisis in Ukraine was instigated by the “Western globalist elites” who have shifted the blame on Russia.

While speaking to the media on Friday in New Delhi ahead of the BRICS Leaders’ Summit, Mr Putin said, NATO’s expansion eastward to include Ukraine is not acceptable to Russia.

“We have repeatedly stated that NATO’s expansion eastward is unacceptable to us. Ultimately, they reached Ukraine. President Yanukovych (former Ukrainian president) was removed from office through a coup d’état. I am not now offering any assessment of President Yanukovych’s actions. There were, most likely, numerous mistakes, and probably grounds for the population’s discontent. Yet he was opposed to Ukraine’s accession to NATO. As soon as the regime was changed through a bloody coup d’état, the objective of pulling Ukraine into NATO was immediately set in motion, and this, in fact, became the root cause of today’s tragic events in Ukraine,” Mr Putin said.

“Everything happening in Europe right now is basically the result of system errors by the so-called West, to be more precise, the globalist circles of the West in politics, security, and economics," Mr Putin said.

"We are not threatening and have no intention of threatening European countries. Why would we? No one even realises that we have no reason to enter into conflict with Europe," he said, adding the European leaders are frightening their populations with an imaginary threat coming from Russia.

He added that this has taken the form of attempts to put pressure on the Russian Federation, initially through the use of terrorists in the Caucasus and separatists, then via other methods, and now by means of the neo‑Nazi regime in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, during his meeting with Dilma Rousseff , President of the New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS, Mr Putin said Russia supports bringing more participants into the work of the bank.

"We are very pleased that such an instrument was created at the time. We support bringing as many participants as possible into its work, the programs being extensive and covering more sectors of the economies of BRICS member countries," Mr Putin said. He mentioned Moscow’s initiative to create an investment platform for BRICS countries during the meeting.