Patrushev: Americans pulled out from Afghanistan to get Ukraine ready for offensive

The United States withdrew troops from Afghanistan to prepare Ukraine for an offensive, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper explaining the reasons behind the USA's actions and the conflict in Ukraine.

According to Patrushev, his point of view found a confirmation in the United States too.

"The sudden departure of the Americans from this country [Afghanistan], as it turned out, was largely due to them focusing on Ukraine (…). By the way, US Secretary of State Blinken confirmed that when he said that if the US military had not left Afghanistan, Washington would not have been able to allocate so much money to Ukraine,” Patrushev told the newspaper.

During the same interview, Patrushev noted that the people of Ukraine must understand that Western countries were fighting Russia by proxy using Ukraine.

The US started withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in the spring of 2021. Taking advantage of the reduction in the contingent of the American military, the Taliban* militants (the movement is banned in Russia and recognized as terrorist) captured a number of regions of the country before taking control of its capital Kabul on August 15. Many politicians and diplomats (among them Russian ones) then called Washington's move a grand American failure. Washington, however, insisted that the withdrawal of troops was necessary.

*terrorist group, banned in Russia