Russia claims West spent almost $300 billion to escalate war in Ukraine

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Western countries have spent almost $300 billion over the past two years for the escalation of conflict in Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said on Friday.

Speaking at a meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the Kazakh city of Almaty, Belousov estimated the West's military-technical, financial and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv at $278 billion. Russia launched its "special military operation" in Ukraine in 2022.

"The West urgently pumps the country (Ukraine) with weapons, transfers intelligence, trains Ukrainian military personnel and recruits mercenaries," he said.

Russian air defense forces on Wednesday repelled a massive attack on the Crimean Bridge with 10 ATACMS missiles, saving hundreds of lives, the minister said.

"The united group continues to liberate new regions of Russia from neo-Nazis and take measures to fulfill the main task of protecting the population of the Russian Federation. We will continue to act decisively and proportionately to security threats," he added.

Later in the day, Belousov met his Tajik counterpart Sherali Mirzo and urged him to strengthen combat coordination between the military of the two countries in the face of threats emanating from Afghanistan.

"The situation and the processes that are taking place in Afghanistan are quite complicated. We keep track of them and understand how we will work with them. But all this requires our attention, improving both our coordination and combat readiness," he said.

The CSTO is a military bloc consisting of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.