US initiator of all modern armed conflicts: Russia cmdr.

A top Russian military commander says the US is the sole initiator of all modern military conflicts across the globe, adding that in just one decade Washington and its allies have used military force against third parties over 50 times.

Lieutenant General Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Main Operation Directorate of Russia’s General Staff, made the remarks on Friday at a military-scientific conference dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Soviet Union’s victory in World War II over Nazi Germany.

“The US appears to be the ultimate instigator of all military conflicts in the world. The Western countries have begun to hold themselves out as ‘architects’ of the international relations system, leaving to the US the role of the world’s only superpower,” said Kartapolov.

The commander also noted that Washington’s central focus has been to contain Russia to prevent the emergence of an alternative center of power.

“The course that the White House has been pursuing to systematically contain Russia stems from the United States’ strategic goal to preserve its leading geopolitical and economic positions at all costs, to preempt the establishment of new centers of power,” said Kartapolov.

This is while the chief of the Russian General Staff’s intelligence directorate, Igor Sergun, also spoke at the conference revealing that the US plans to expand its deployment of armed forces on a permanent and temporary basis in territories of more than 100 countries.

“There are plans for creating weapons and military equipment depots in these countries in advance. The hardware in store will be ready for use in hypothetical combat operations in forward zones,” said Sergun adding, “It is presumed that in a future war US forces will be acting both on its own and together with its NATO allies or as part of coalition groups.”

This comes as the US has deployed hundreds of paratroopers to Ukraine under the pretext of training the country’s National Guard amid the armed conflict between the Kiev government troops and pro-Russia forces in the country’s eastern regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov has accused the US of not deploying its soldiers to training ranges, “but directly in the combat zone near Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Artyomovsk and Volnovakha.”

Tensions between the West and Moscow have grown over the past year amid the crisis in Russia’s neighboring Ukraine. The US and its European allies accuse Moscow of destabilizing Ukraine. Russia, however, rejects the accusation.

Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. 

CAH/MKA/HRB

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