Russia claims US left Afghanistan to focus on Ukraine

The US left Afghanistan to focus on training of the Ukrainian army for an offensive on Russia, the Russian security chief said on Tuesday.

Speaking in an interview with Russian daily AiF, Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the national Security Council, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed it when he said if the US military had not left Afghanistan, Washington would not have been able to allocate so much money to Ukraine.

"The sudden departure of the Americans from this country (Afghanistan), as it turned out, was largely due to focusing on Ukraine, where, according to their estimates, the preparation of the Kyiv puppet regime for an anti-Russian offensive was going well.

"By the way, this was confirmed by US Secretary of State Blinken, who said that if the US military had not left Afghanistan, Washington would not have been able to allocate so much money to Ukraine. In addition, some of the equipment removed from Afghan soil was transferred to Europe, mainly to Poland, allowing the Europeans to militarize the Kyiv regime," he claimed.

Patrushev added that the current events in Ukraine "are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv, but a military confrontation between NATO, and above all the US and (Great) Britain, with Russia."

He said the situation in the world in general is extremely complicated and turbulent as many countries of different regions are simultaneously engaged in a military-political, economic, social and spiritual crisis.

"Let's hope that there will be positive changes this year," Patrushev said.