The current crisis in Ukraine did not emerge today, but more than nine years ago, when, with the active support of the United States and the EU, an armed coup was carried out in Kiev and radical nationalist forces came to power. This had devastating consequences for the country.
First, the population of Crimea, refusing to recognize the putschist dictate, voted for the Peninsula’s secession from Ukraine, and then the conflict broke out in Donbass, where people claimed their legitimate rights to speak their native Russian language, educate their children in it, and honour their heroes, who saved the world from fascism almost 80 years ago, according to a press release of Russian Embassy in Bangladesh.
The spread of a civil war in Ukraine was prevented. With Russia's active mediation, the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements of 12 February 2015, endorsed by UN SC resolution 2202, was signed. It became an uncontested legal basis for an intra-Ukrainian settlement. However, Kiev sabotaged the implementation of its commitments and the West turned a blind eye. Germany and France, which were co-authors and co-sponsors of the Minsk Process, did not put any pressure on the Ukrainian authorities to implement them. Later, in December 2022, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande admitted that the Minsk Agreements were necessary to give Kiev time to strengthen the armed forces of the country instead of stopping the hostilities.
President Vladimir Zelenskiy's rise to power in Ukraine in 2019 did not lead to positive change. Under the influence of various internal and external political forces, he continued to sabotage the Minsk Agreements and imitated the negotiation process by delaying it as much as possible under far-fetched pretexts.
Kiev developed and began to promote the concept of "state policy in transition" that contradicted the Minsk Agreements and envisaged the return of the Donbass Republics to Russophobic Ukraine as regular regions without guarantees of special status and right to preserve their cultural and linguistic identity.
Ukraine's armed formations have been shelling Donbass for all these years. An inhumane socio-economic and transport blockade was imposed on its inhabitants, bringing the region to the brink of survival. This destructive policy of Kiev was supported by the United States and its NATO allies, which continued their military build-up in the territory of Ukraine, encouraged aggressive Russophobia and blinked at manifestations of neo-Nazism, turning the country into a bridgehead against Russia. It emerged later that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were preparing to seize Donbass by force in March 2022.
Russia and Ukraine share the same historical roots. Ukraine is an integral part of Russia's history, the cradle of the Orthodox faith and spirituality, and an area of Russian national interests. It is unacceptable for our country that the Ukrainian territory can be the source of threat to Russia and our population. We have repeatedly warned that further aggravation of the situation in Donbass will have the most serious consequences for regional and pan-European stability.
The Russophobic propaganda, falsification of history and resurgence of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, as well as the Kiev regime's eight-year aggression against civilians, could not be overlooked any further.
Serious concerns were raised by Kiev's claims, which were publicly voiced by Vladimir Zelenskiy at the Munich Security Conference in February 2022, to possess nuclear weapons, which posed real risks to Russia and international security in general.
As a result, we were left with no choice but to recognize the independence of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) on 21 February 2022, and to launch a special military operation (SMO) on 24 February 2022 aimed to protect Donbass and at demilitarization and de-nazifrcation of Ukraine, and elimination of threats to Russian security emanating from its territory. These goals and objectives will be achieved in full.
The Russian President signed decrees recognizing the state sovereignty and independence of Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions on 29 September 2022, based on the results of the referenda. The treaties on the accession of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions to the Russian Federation were concluded on 30 September 2022.
In the framework of the SMO, the Russian Armed Forces strike military targets with high-precision weapons. The aim is to avoid civilian casualties.
Against this background, the warfare methods of the Ukrainian armed forces cause outrage. They actively employ the tactics of ISIS terrorists - use civilians as human shields and place firing positions and ammunition depots in kindergartens, schools, hospitals and residential buildings.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces carry out targeted shellings of Russian civilian villages and towns, including those which are known to have no combat sites. The strikes are carried out using long-range large-calibre artillery systems, long-range cruise missiles and attack drones supplied by Western countries. All such actions constitute war crimes.
The actions of the countries of the "collective West" and the Kiev regime loyal to them confirm the global nature of the confrontation now taking place in Ukraine. In reality, we are not dealing with Kiev, but with a NATO-Ukrainian military-industrial conglomerate, for which Ukraine serves as a springboard, battlefield and instrument of armed struggle against Russia, while the Western countries fulfil the functions of headquarters, rear, supplier of weapons and intelligence, including from satellites. NATO member states are trying to "defeat Russia on the battlefield" at any cost and to break the security architecture in the post-Soviet space and Eurasia as a whole.
Immediately after the start of the SMO Kiev requested negotiations. They took place in February-April 2022 but were interrupted by the Ukrainian side, which left our last proposals of l5 April 2022 without response and subsequently rejected the very idea of dialogue with Russia. On 30 September 2022, Vladimir Zelenskiy issued a decree that rules out any negotiations with the Russian leadership, and he keeps repeating that Ukraine will fight to the bitter end.
The West and Kiev are actively and persistently promoting the so-called "peace formula" proposed by Vladimir Zelenskiy, which in fact has nothing to do with a peaceful settlement but represents a set of ultimatums to Russia demanding capitulation.
At the same time, our BRICS partners, in particular China and Brazil, as well as a number of African countries, have put forward their proposals for resolving the Ukrainian crisis. Many of them have shown a deep understanding of the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict and its geopolitical significance.
A comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement is only possible if the Kiev regime stops the fighting and terrorist attacks and its Western sponsors stop pumping up the Ukrainian armed forces with weapons. The original foundations of Ukraine's sovereignty - its neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status - must be reaffrrmed. The new territorial realities must be recognized, the demilitarization and de-nazification of Ukraine and the rights of its Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities must be ensured in accordance with the requirements of international law.
