Russian TV commentator unexpectedly confesses: 'Didn't think we'd have to fight entire Western world'

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT, is no stranger to making outlandish statements on Russian state TV. She once declared that 'Americans know only one type of physical love' and 'it's called BDSM'. Now, she's revealed some unexpected thoughts on the progress of the war.

Russia didn't anticipate length of war

Simonyan recently appeared in an interview on the program Life and Fate, which airs on Russia state TV. A video of the interview was shared on Twitter on Thursday 9 February by Julia Davis, founder of the Russian Media Monitor watchdog group.

In the discussion with host Boris Korchevnikov, Simonyan seemed to anticipate that her comments 'will probably surprise'. She admitted that Russia’s war in Ukraine had not been going as well as she expected. When Korchevnikov asked if she had anticipated that the invasion would lead to war, she replied:

Myself, I believe, just like everyone else, including the people who planned this special operation, didn't anticipate that it would drag out for so long.

However, Simonyan laid the blame for the prolonged conflict on the aid from Western nations. She said:

I think that obviously no one has foreseen this, because no one had anticipated that we would not fight against Zelensky, Ukraine's armed forces, its security service, but we will fight against the entire collective West.

We are fighting against all of them. Listen, of course, to defeat the collective West, the might of NATO, it's hard and difficult. I didn't anticipate the crushing scale of what the West is prepared to do in order to destroy us.

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'World War III is already underway'

Simonyan revealed her surprise at the huge amount of support Western allies have been giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, she continued to blame that support for allegedly escalating the conflict into a full-blown global war. She said:

I didn't think it would be easy, but of course I didn't think we'd have to fight the entire Western world, that it would be World War III. World War III is already underway.

Simonyan also claimed:

We didn't start the war in Ukraine, in Donbas, we are ending it. We're having to end it in this bloody way because those who are directing it not only don't want it to end in our victory but they don't want it to end at all.

Read more:

- Newsweek: 'World War III Is 'Already Underway,' Russian Journalist Claims'