MOSCOW, Jan 26 — The secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council said today that the United States and Nato were parties to the conflict in Ukraine and were seeking to drag out the fighting, the TASS news agency reported.

Speaking a day after Germany and the United States agreed to send dozens of tanks to Kyiv, Nikolai Patrushev, one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, said what was happening in Ukraine today was the result of a years-long “hybrid war” being waged by the West against Russia. — Reuters