Skip to content

Patrushev Warns That West's Destruction of Ukraine Could Cause Millions To Leave and Seek Refuge Elsewhere

In an interview on Nov. 23 with the weekly Argumenty i Fakty, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev warned that the West’s destruction of Ukraine, one of Eastern Europe’s most populous nations, could at any moment cause millions of that nation’s citizens to leave and seek refuge elsewhere, RT reported him as saying. “By essentially establishing a protectorate in Ukraine, the West crippled the country’s economy, took away people’s civil rights, and sent some strata of the population into poverty,’’ Patrushev said. “At any moment, there’s potential in Ukraine for an outburst of tensions so strong that millions of Ukrainians will flee to seek refuge in other places.’’

Addressing the migrant issue more broadly, Patrushev pointedly stated that “having sown destruction in the Middle East and North Africa, the West is now surprised that people from those countries are moving en masse to other regions.” (In criticizing Belarus and Russia for the migration crisis at Poland’s border, the European governments have ‘’the cause and effect mixed up,’’ Patrushev said.)

The leaders of the U.S. and the European Union have destroyed the nations of the Middle East and Africa, he charged, causing millions of desperate people from those countries to attempt to get into the EU via Belarus during the recent period. Look at what foreign intervention has done to nations like Libya, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, he insisted. Unless root causes are eliminated, uncontrolled migration will continue, he warned. Hence, “the West should abandon its policy of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, [and] from imposing its beliefs through the use of brute military force,” RT quoted him as saying.

Patrushev reminded Western nations that Russia will continue to cooperate with its strategic partner, Belarus, and “react proportionally” to all provocations, including military ones near the borders of the Union State with Belarus. The West failed earlier to destabilize Minsk with chaos and protest rallies, he argued, so now it is trying to use the migrant issue to achieve the same goal. But, he warned, this will fail. (https://www.rt.com/russia/541219-patrushev-west-destroy-ukraine/)