Russian media reported on the statement.
"The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv, it is a military confrontation between NATO, and above all the US and England with Russia. Fearing a direct clash, NATO instructors are driving Ukrainian soldiers to their deaths... We are not at war with Ukraine, because by definition we cannot have hatred for ordinary Ukrainians. And the sooner the citizens of Ukraine understand that the West is fighting against Russia with their hands, the more lives will be saved," Patrushev said.
The Secretary of the Russian Security Council added that it is the West, not Russia, that terrorizes civilians of Ukraine with missile strikes and destroys the Ukrainian people.
"The West, in order to please its ambitions, is virtually destroying the Ukrainian people, forcing the active generation to die on the battlefield and bringing the rest of the population to poverty," Patrushev said.