Civil war in Ukraine poses military danger to Russia - armed forces chief of staff
MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax-AVN) - The 2013 coup in Ukraine has led to a civil war in this country, and Kyiv's military operation could also be directed against Russia, says Russian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Army Gen. Valery Gerasimov.
"In fact, a civil war is under way in Ukraine, and thousands of people have fallen victim to it. It's difficult to predict how this all could end up. We don't know what instructions the new Ukrainian authorities are receiving from their Western supervisors and where Kyiv's aggression could be channeled in the future," Gerasimov said at a security conference in Moscow on Thursday.
"But in any case, such uncertainty doesn't rule out military danger for Russia," he added.
He cited Georgia's attack on Russian peacekeepers stationed in South Ossetia in August 2008 as an example of such danger.
"The new Ukrainian leaders are trying to use military force to tame the citizens of Ukraine inhabiting Donbas, who have expressed no confidence in the illegitimate authorities and who disagree with the Russophobic policy being pursued in the country," Gerasimov said.
"The radicals and Russophobes who came to power in Ukraine through a coup in February 2014 have legitimized neo-Fascist and nationalistic organizations' activities in the country," he said.
"The accusation of Russia of all of their own problems and harassment of Russian-speaking people has become the main essence of the Ukrainian state policy," he said.
In their desire "to put Russia in its proper place," it is becoming increasingly "more obvious that Washington and its NATO partners are interested in creating crises in regions bordering the Russian Federation," Gerasimov said.
"The technology of these revolutions has become standard and involves the manipulation of the population's protest potential from the outside with the use of the informational environment in combination with political, economic, humanitarian, and other non-military measures," he said.
The technology of "color revolutions" on the former Soviet territory has been "successfully implemented in Ukraine, in Georgia, and in Moldova," he said.
"As a result, forces having mainly pro-Western and anti-Russian orientation have been brought to power," he said.