Russia says West betrayed Ukraine, exploited people’s trust

By Dmitri Chirciu

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia said Wednesday that the West has "betrayed" Ukraine and exploited the trust of its people.

"Everyone understands that the West betrayed Ukraine, cynically exploiting the trust of the Ukrainian people. They trusted the West. The West, on the other hand, deceived them cynically," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Anadolu at a press briefing in Moscow.

Zakharova said Western countries do not want the issue of Ukraine to end, noting the West needs the "story" to continue in some form.

"The Anglo-Saxon duo (the US and the UK), which stood behind the anti-Russian and anti-Ukrainian campaign, provoked these conflicts by carrying out coups, and then did not allow Ukraine to go down the path of negotiations," she said.

In response to a question on allegations that secret early peace negotiations were held between Russia and Ukraine and that the UK put pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to abandon them, Zakharova said she did not have any information on the subject.

"This may be the secret desire of some elite groups in the West. Maybe they want to encourage the peace process through this. Maybe they want to create justification in the information environment to portray themselves as the peacekeepers. I can't say what this is about. I do not have such information," she said.

Zakharova also spoke about the supply of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine by NATO, saying that the risk of a direct conflict between Russia and the alliance is increasing.

"Warplanes taking part in conflicts on the side of the Ukrainian army are legitimate targets to be destroyed for the Russian Armed Forces," she added.

*Writing by Burc Eruygur in Istanbul