March 9, 2024 (EIRNS)—Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev told a March 7 meeting on Russian security issues that French President Emmanuel Macron’s call to consider sending NATO troops to Ukraine, and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s remarks that if Ukraine lost, NATO itself would soon be at war with Russia, both reflect the West’s decision to double down on their strategic goal of destroying Russia at all costs.
Patrushev stressed that “the collective West is trying to push ahead with its unrealistic plans for inflicting a strategic defeat on our country in Ukraine using the neo-Nazi terrorist regime. By continuing to provide large-scale military and military-technical assistance, the West is actually participating in the armed conflict.”
The top security official continued: “In connection with the failure of the hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive and the successful actions of the Russian Armed Forces, French President Macron, following the Feb. 26 conference in Paris on Ukraine did not rule out the possibility of sending NATO military contingents to Ukraine. He said the Western countries intend to do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning in Ukraine,” Patrushev pointed out, adding that U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had also told a Congressional hearing that, if Ukraine lost, NATO would go to war with Russia.
“The Russian President in his message to the Federal Assembly recalled of the fate of all those who sent their contingents to our country and warned that now the consequences for possible intruders would be much more tragic and that Russia has weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Patrushev emphasized.
