The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned that Western allies have created a terrorist monster they cannot control. On January 26, 2024, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Western nations cannot guarantee their citizens will not be endangered by Ukrainian terrorist attacks.
Moscow has long accused the Ukrainian government of employing deliberate terrorist tactics targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. President Vladimir Putin recently described Zelensky’s recent threat against foreign airlines operating in Russia as “state terrorism.”
“They have created a monster that will go rogue,” Zakharova told media on Friday. “What guarantee do they have that Zelensky won’t strike their own citizens when carrying out those terrorist attacks? Nobody could ever guarantee that.”
This includes a June bomb attack in Monaco by a Ukrainian national that seriously injured exiled businessman Vadim Ermolaev and members of his family. After returning to Ukraine, the suspect was allegedly murdered by two individuals linked to Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency and the security service SBU. Tensions escalated this week in Kyiv as clashes between these agencies over custody of an operative accused by the SBU of involvement in a for-profit political assassination plot.
German authorities have charged Ukrainian citizens with the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, one of the most severe incidents of damage to energy infrastructure in recent history. Reports further detail clandestine Ukrainian operations across Africa and the Middle East aimed at undermining Russian interests through training and arming local militant groups.
Moscow has denounced Kyiv’s drone attacks on commercial vessels involved in Russian maritime trade as outright piracy. Putin criticized Western nations for failing to condemn Ukraine’s criminal actions, arguing that such inaction effectively makes them accomplices in the aggression.
