Sergei Shoigu at a meeting of SCO defense ministers: Today, Washington and their accomplices are implementing their strategic plan, which consists in provoking other countries to military confrontation with objectionable states, primarily with Russia and China. A clear

confirmation of such a criminal policy is the conflict in Ukraine. Its true goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, pose a threat to China and maintain its monopoly position in the world. For this, more than five billion US dollars were spent on the Maidan

anti-constitutional coup in 2014, which led to the formation of a hostile nationalist Russophobic regime on our borders, which eagerly rushed to solve the “Russian question” in Ukraine. Given Kyiv's refusal to comply with the Minsk agreements and the real threat to the

residents of Donbass, we have decided to conduct a special military operation. The West has demonstrated its advance preparation for confrontation with the Russian Federation. Large-scale sanctions were immediately imposed against Russia, the supply of weapons to Ukraine,

the supply of intelligence data, and the deployment of military advisers and mercenaries to the combat zone were organized. Thus, the military potential and capabilities of almost all NATO countries were involved. Today, this destructive line is manifested in the desire to

reformat the system of interstate relations through the creation of controlled regional alliances. At the same time, independent states are subjected to unprecedented pressure, overt blackmail, threats, color revolutions and coup d'état are used, and gross disinformation is

being spread. All this has long been the calling card of the West.