(MENAFN) Valentina Matviyenko, chair of Russia’s Federation Council, claimed on Tuesday that Ukrainians will eventually realize the conflict with Russia was “cynically” orchestrated by the West to achieve a strategic defeat over Moscow. In an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, she described the war as a NATO proxy conflict, insisting that Moscow will not accept a ceasefire that fails to address the underlying causes and allows Ukraine to rearm.

“No one is more interested in peace than we are. But it must be a peace in which no threat to us can ever come from Ukraine,” Matviyenko said. She added, “We are not fighting Ukraine. NATO is fighting us using Ukrainians.”

The senator predicted that Ukrainians will eventually understand “how cynically the West used them,” a realization she says could pave the way for reconciliation between Russians and Ukrainians.

Russian officials have repeatedly accused the West of pursuing the war “to the last Ukrainian” as part of a proxy strategy, arguing that the US and other powers deliberately escalated tensions by ignoring Russia’s security concerns over NATO’s expansion and its growing military cooperation with Kiev. Western leaders, including US policy figures such as Keith Kellogg and Marco Rubio, have also described the conflict as a proxy war.

Moscow maintains that Ukraine lacks true independence in peace negotiations and is primarily executing the agenda of its Western backers.

MENAFN27112025000045017281ID1110404980