Putin: The West has torn apart the Serbs and the SFR Yugoslavia VIDEO

"Everything in the West began to degrade rapidly, and the UN Charter started being ignored. The events in Yugoslavia, what were they? Where was the UN Charter? Western countries did whatever they thought necessary. They used direct military force. And in the end, they tore apart Yugoslavia and tore apart the Serbs," Putin said, according to Sputnik.

According to him, the West believed it would be able to destroy and dismember Russia in a short period. "They tore apart Yugoslavia and the Serbs; they tore apart one people," Putin stated.

The Russian president assessed that there is no civilization in the West, only continuous degradation.

"After the collapse of the USSR, the West implemented decisions against Russia by force, including militarily," Putin said, citing as an example the military support to terrorists in the North Caucasus.

“The West also used destructive instruments to influence Russia’s internal politics in order to destabilize the country from within. As has now become obvious to everyone, all these attempts and all these destructive plans of the West regarding Russia have completely failed,” the Russian president said.

Putin stated that the West started the war in Ukraine, while Russia is trying to end it.

“We did not start the war in 2022. It was the destructive forces in Ukraine, supported by the West. Essentially, it was the West itself that initiated this war. We are only trying to end it, to bring it to a conclusion. They simply completely ignored all our interests. In the end, this led to a coup in Ukraine,” Putin said.

Speaking about NATO’s eastward expansion, the Russian president said that his country does not deprive anyone of the right to security, but at the same time insists on the fulfillment of given promises.

“I am not even talking about NATO expansion now, although it is obvious. Even today, we are told that you have no right to force someone to resolve their security issues the way you want, or to deprive them of the right to act as they wish. We do not deprive anyone of any rights. And we do not demand anything special from anyone. It was publicly announced that there would be no NATO expansion to the east. And what? They do not care, one wave of expansion after another,” Putin said.