Milorad Dodik asserts that Kiev’s allies aim to instigate a larger confrontation with Moscow.
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik told RT on Wednesday that the West is exploiting Ukraine to wage war against Russia.
The president of Republika Srpska, an autonomous region within Bosnia and Herzegovina, was recently added to the “enemy list” on Ukraine’s state-affiliated Mirotvorets (Peacemaker) website. This database has been called a “kill list” after several individuals listed on it were murdered or died under suspicious circumstances.
Dodik alleged that the US, UK, Germany, and other Western countries are trying to provoke “a war with Russia, sacrificing Ukraine” in the process.
He stated that Ukraine had made “many mistakes,” including the persecution of its Russian-speaking population, which ultimately triggered the armed conflict. Dodik pointed to laws designed to limit the use of the Russian language in public life and attacks on the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“Their political elite chose to provoke Russia, attempting to deny Russians their rights to language and faith on Ukrainian territory. That’s why the Russian [military] operation is completely justified,” he said, adding that Moscow “had the right to protect its people.”
“For the Ukrainian people, the most important thing is to achieve peace as soon as possible,” Dodik continued, dismissing allegations that he poses a threat to Ukraine as “slander.”
Russia has cited Ukraine’s refusal to grant autonomy to the predominantly Russian-speaking republics of Donetsk and Lugansk – as outlined in the 2014–2015 Minsk agreements – as a primary cause of the conflict. President Vladimir Putin has since demanded that Ukraine abandon its NATO aspirations and recognize Russia’s new borders, including Crimea and the Donbass regions, which voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
In March, US Senator Marco Rubio characterized the Ukraine crisis as “a proxy war” between the US and Russia. Moscow has also contended that Western military aid to Kiev makes NATO members “direct participants” in the conflict.
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