Cuban president lays blame for conflict in Ukraine on US

"The US government has distorted the root cause of the conflict and has incited a sense of contempt for Russia through its enormous media power. I believe that they were the ones who fomented Russophobia and concealed the true causes of the conflict by making Russia out to be the scapegoat. I do think that the US government itself is to blame for the creation of this conflict," the Cuban leader said in an interview published on the YouTube channel of Cuba’s Mesa Redonda television program on Thursday.

"They put Russia in a situation that was incompatible with the country’s protection," Diaz-Canel insisted.

According to him, Washington has been deliberately provoking wars "to sell weapons and, in that way, resolve its own domestic problems." Everyone but the United States is victimized by the conflict, he emphasized.

The Cuban president called on the international community to support initiatives that would contribute to establishing a dialogue between the parties to the conflict. It is also necessary to give the parties a guarantee that any peace would be a lasting one, he said.