Shoigu claims West seeks to expand Russia-Ukraine war to Asia-Pacific region.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has accused the West of attempting to expand the Russia-Ukraine war to the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Oct.

30. Speaking at the Xiangshan defense forum in Beijing, the minister claimed that NATO countries are increasing their military presence in Asia-Pacific under the cover of an "ostentatious desire for dialogue." He has praised the relations between Russia and China as "exemplary," adding that Russia will continue to develop its military-technical cooperation with interested countries in the region through equipment supplies and joint exercises.

Shoigu also said that the West is seeking a "strategic defeat of Russia" via its support for Ukraine and that "the Western line of steady escalation of the conflict with Russia carries the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers," the Associated Press reported. Commenting on Moscow's recent decision to withdraw from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the minister claimed Russia was not lowering its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. The move was only meant "to restore parity with the United States, which has not ratified this treaty," Shoigu said.

The Russian Parliament approved the withdrawal from the CTBT on Oct.

25, a decision followed by an announcement of a large-scale nuclear exercise on the same day.

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News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press.

He also volunteers as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukrainer.

Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.