Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow, April 13, 2022
Table of contents
- Sergey Lavrov’s forthcoming participation in celebrations for the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and the CIS
- Sergey Lavrov’s upcoming meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions of Latin America and the Caribbean states accredited in Moscow
- Ukraine update
- Discussion of the missile attack on Kramatorsk by the Ukrainian armed forces at the OSCE
- Japan’s decision to remove Azov battalion from the national survey of international terrorism
- Polish authorities seize Russian diplomatic property in Warsaw
- 40th anniversary of the Argentine-British conflict over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands
- Britain’s colonial and neocolonial practices
- Two Europes or how to read news in the historical context
- Renaming Russian fortress in Hawaii
- International Day for Monuments and Sites
- Historical significance of the Catherine the Great Manifesto on Crimea’s accession into Russia
- Liberation of right-bank Ukraine (Dnieper-Carpathian offensive)
- Eduard Pesov’s 90th birthday
- Closing EU airspace for Russian airlines
- French law enforcement agencies investigating war crimes in Ukraine
- Using OSCE Special Monitoring Mission’s equipment in Ukraine to adjust Ukrainian Armed Forces’ artillery fire
- Russia-Pakistan cooperation
- Financial aid to Ukraine from Canada and the EU
- Serbia’s vote on Russia’s suspension from the UNHRC
- India’s role in settling the Ukrainian crisis
- The EU’s role in settling the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
- Russia’s cooperation with Latin America
- Prospects of Russia-EU relations
- The Russian President’s Executive Order on foreign customers’ obligations to Russian natural gas suppliers
- Washington’s attempts to interfere in Russia-India relations
- Allegations by Great Britain and the United States concerning Russian and DPR Armed Forces’ use of chemical weapons during the liberation of Mariupol
- Potential confrontation between Russia and NATO
- Secret war of Great Britain and the United States against Russia in Ukraine
- White Helmets in Ukraine
- US accusations against Russia of genocide in Ukraine
- Fake claims in Ukraine
- Victory Day celebrations in Moscow
On April 19, the Reception House of the Russian Foreign Ministry will host the opening of a photo exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and the CIS countries, with the participation of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, ambassadors of the Commonwealth countries and officials of the CIS, CSTO, EAEU and Union State of Russia and Belarus.
Following the event, on behalf of Sergey Lavrov, a working breakfast will be held for guests to discuss current international and regional topics, as well as current issues related to CIS interaction.
On April 21, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to meet with the heads of diplomatic missions of Latin America and the Caribbean states accredited in Moscow.
During the upcoming event, which will be held in the traditional format, the participants will address the current state of Russia’s relations with friendly Latin American countries and identify promising areas for further cooperation.
The intention is to exchange views on current issues on the regional and international agenda.
Exactly eight years ago, on April 13, 2014, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council took a criminal decision On Urgent Measures to Overcome the Terrorist Threat and Preserve the Territorial Integrity of Ukraine which came into effect on the following day. The Kiev regime began a civil war under the name Anti-Terrorist Operation against Donbass civilians who refused to accept the anti-constitutional coup by neo-Nazis. All that was accompanied by total silence from the EU “lambs.”
For eight years we have been witnessing Kiev’s war crimes and the West’s indifference to the tragedy in Donbass. In September 2014 and February 2015, the Ukrainian authorities signed the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements following a military defeat at the hands of DPR and LPR forces. Our attempts to make Kiev abide by these obligations failed, including due to the position of the Western countries who were playing their own game with their military buildup in Ukraine, turning it into a bridgehead against Russia while hiding behind talk of “engagement” in the political process of peace negotiations.
Having exhausted diplomatic means of protecting Donbass and ensuring its own security, Russia was forced to launch a special military operation. The Russian armed forces use high-precision weapons to strike military targets and are doing all they can to avoid civilian casualties.
This does not apply to the Ukrainian armed formations whose barbaric conduct horrify those who are aware of them. However, it is impossible to know it since the world media do not give an accurate picture and instead shape public opinion exclusively through propaganda instructions handed down from Washington and NATO structures. The Ukrainian side places tanks and artillery in schools, kindergartens and hospitals. Firing points are set up in residences so as use the people as a human shield.
On April 8 of this year the Ukrainian army launched a Tochka-U tactical missile at the railway station in Kramatorsk. Dozens of civilians were killed and over a hundred wounded. On March 14, they used the same missile to strike at Donetsk. This is remembered by those who saw it, who were informed by the media about the warhead type, whose territory it was launched from and how many people died as a result. The Western community saw a different picture. The April 14 tragedy in Donetsk was blamed on Russian forces. It was completely at odds with reality. On that day, 17 people were killed and 36 peopled were wounded. Where was the world community? They did not speak about either civilian casualties, or children and old people. Just like they had never spoken about them the entire eight years. On April 5 and 9 of this year Ukrainian forces blew up tanks with chemicals which resulted in the release of toxic substances.
The West keeps flooding the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons including obsolete Soviet-made items which are much cheaper to give to Ukraine than to decommission. What frightening, cynical and criminal logic. Why should the Western countries waste their money if they can “package” it and send it to Ukraine so that the conflict never ends and the casualties keep growing. That’s a smart idea. But someone will have to bear responsibility for it afterwards.
The US, the main “donor of death”, has supplied $1.7 billion worth of weapons since the start of the special military operation. That’s just in the past month and a half. The European Union is right behind it with 1.5 billion euros. Among other suppliers of Ukrainian Nazis are the UK, Germany, Canada, Baltic states, France and Czechia. This shows once again that the EU has ceased to be a purely economic association and is rapidly evolving into a military-political entity. I should say “devolving”, not because military-political entities are bad but because what NATO and the EU are doing now is a crime ̵ supplying a regime that had been shelling unarmed civilians for eight years, despite the fact the conflict had outgrown the limits and formats it had earlier. Fuelling, fuelling and fuelling.
Kiev is resorting to fakes that purport to show cruel treatment of civilians by the Russian military so as to distract attention from Kiev’s own crimes. Last week we made a detailed analysis of the staged show in Bucha. A party of journalists and European politicians was dispatched there instead of forensic experts. They did not question the appropriateness of what they were doing and could not think of anything better to do than pose for pictures and give interviews in the centre of the town where a criminal provocation was stage by the Kiev regime which they themselves raised and armed. This begs the question: are there limits to cynicism or is the “collective West” capable of more “achievements” in this area? Indeed, the “collective West”, primarily the US, and the NATO retinue can fall even further below.
It is remarkable that the bodies which had been cynically used in the staged show in Bucha were not buried so that five days later the EU leaders ̵ Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell ̵ could pose for photos with that in the background. Or at least black bags. This goes even beyond a stunt. There must be some morals. We are human beings. We live on the same planet. The Western politicians must still have beating hearts. It’s just not possible to cynically betray everything. Kiev is currently preparing new staged shows in Seredina-Buda and Nizhnyaya Syrovatka in the Sumy region where Russian troops were positioned earlier. Do not fall for these and other provocations.
New glaring facts of unlawful violence and humiliation of Russian POWs by Ukrainian militants are being revealed. Western officials pretend not to notice the numerous videos in the internet. We expect the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other organisations to insist on Kiev’s observance of the norms of international humanitarian law. To my knowledge, the Kiev regime is doing all it can to oppose the ICRC humanitarian mission.
We continue seeking the release and transfer of Russians held by Ukrainian units. Recently, we managed to return home four employees of Atomspetstrans. A month and a half ago they delivered nuclear fuel to the Rovno nuclear power plant and were illegally detained by Kiev since then. We urge the IAEA and other international agencies to give their legal view of such actions.
Yesterday, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky announced the arrest of the leader of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, Viktor Medvedchuk, and expressed his readiness to exchange him for Ukrainian military personnel. We consider this trend very dangerous, considering that there are numerous opposition politicians and public figures in the country. We remember how this tactic was used in the North Caucasus in the 1990s. Journalists, public figures and politicians, including foreign ones, were urged to visit the site of the conflict, which was ruled by militants and terrorists who abducted them and demanded a ransom. Some were luckier than others. This tactic reminds us of what is happening in Ukraine now. Statements by the Kiev regime are similar to what we experienced in the North Caucasus in the 1990s.
For our part, we are paying close attention to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Since the start of the special military operation, over 13,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including basic necessities, medication and food were delivered to the DPR, the LPR and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine.
The armed forces of Russia daily open humanitarian corridors to enable civilians to leave dangerous areas. Over 740,000 people, including 140,000 children came to our country since the beginning of the operation. A maritime corridor is open for foreign ships blocked in Ukrainian ports. However, Kiev is refusing to give civilians the chance to exit to Russia and is holding back foreign ships and crews in ports. There are 76 ships from 18 countries there.
Russia and Ukraine continue holding online talks on a settlement agreement in Ukraine. The agenda includes issues related to Ukraine’s neutral, non-bloc and nuclear-free status, its demilitarisation and denazification, restoration of the status of the Russian language and recognition of territorial realities, including Russia’s possession of Crimea and independence of the DPR and the LPR. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian delegation is working to drag out the talks rather than reach an agreement, just like it did in the Contact Group and the Normandy format over seven years.
We are familiar with this tactic. It led to February 2022. During the talks we saw how the Ukrainian delegation was wasting time, inventing myths and rejecting reality. It called this tactic “brash aggressive diplomacy” that was supposed to lead the country to success. Now we are all seeing this “success.” Do they want to repeat it? In this case, they should honestly tell their compatriots that they are not taking the path of negotiations, that they are not interested in them.
They are just fine with what their sponsors said recently in the European Union. Josep Borrell said: “Wars are won or lost on the battlefield.” Up to this day, EU member countries cannot understand whether he made this statement on their behalf. Was anything agreed upon with them in any way? Is it a collective EU position or his personal stand, aspirations and nighttime reveries? Or, maybe a third option – what if his aides and entourage post tweets sent from who knows where without coordinating them with anyone, and present them as the EU’s position. EU member countries, journalists and politicians tried to find out immediately what compelled Mr Borrell to call for war rather than peace. They cannot understand: Is it their position? Has anyone asked them about it?
In conclusion, I would like to confirm once again that no supplies of Western arms to Kiev, terrorist methods of warfare by Ukrainian armed units, intimidation, propaganda, fakes, disinformation or threats will interfere with carrying out the objectives and achieving the goals of the special military operation to free Donbass, demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, and remove the threats to Russia from its territory.
Our national leaders and the Foreign Ministry have made repeated statements to this effect.
Discussion of the missile attack on Kramatorsk by the Ukrainian armed forces at the OSCE
On April 8, the day of yet another heinous crime perpetrated by the Ukrainian armed forces against the civilians, namely, the missile attack on a square outside the railway station in Kramatorsk, Russia proactively requested the Polish OSCE Chairman-in-Office to hold a special Permanent Council meeting. We proposed discussing the issue in a purely factual manner under a neutral agenda item, so that all participating states could freely express their opinion about what happened and to figure out what really happened there. We suggested discussing the specifics, without politicising or polarising approaches.
However, the Chairman first shied away, and then, citing a similar request coming from the Ukrainian delegation, convened the Permanent Council with openly confrontational language “about the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine.” Doesn't it remind you of anything? A week ago, the United Kingdom, which presides at the UN Security Council, did the same thing. Russia tried to convene the UN Security Council on Bucha. Our motion was turned down twice. Then they told us that the programme already has a meeting on Ukraine scheduled, and so it will be held without “your extraordinary sessions.” You know what happened next.
The tactics never change and the countries stick to the same logic. It is important to understand this. They are not concerned about what really happened there, the data, the facts, or information on the ground. They are interested in sticking to the course and the approach that was formed in advance. Not yesterday, not a month ago, but during eight long years.
Thus, the mandate of the chairmanship whereby Warsaw is supposed to act as an honest broker was grossly violated this time again. Warsaw was not supposed to take a biased position, but to perform the functions of a chair (logistics, support, organisation, etc.). Instead, Poland zealously continued to promote Ukraine’s and its Western patrons’ position.
This meeting of the OSCE decision-making body on a serious matter was turned into the traditional anti-Russian spectacle. We have presented objective data, including facts established by foreign (to emphasise, not Russian) journalists about the use of the Tochka-U missile, which is used by the armed forces of Ukraine, not the armed forces of Russia. All the Westerners can come up with is a flow of unsubstantiated insinuations, emotions and insults, yelling, swearing, etc. There may be only one approach here. They need time to get it out of their system. This is not even an attempt to calm down or normalise the situation, and then to resume talks. Exactly the opposite. They are not even able to articulate what they're accusing us of. It’s a stream of unconsciousness, because they don't really have much to say. People start yelling, acting rude and swearing when they run out of arguments, which is something they don’t have and this made-up story is crumbling before our eyes. Even though the Western “organism” of media capabilities is loaded with “combat shells” aimed at Russia, each time the ricochet of lies and fakes backfires and hits them with everything that they “load” it with.
Once again, we have to acknowledge the toxic and Russophobic atmosphere at the OSCE. It is being created purposefully by the OSCE functionaries led by the Polish Chairman-in-Office. Nevertheless, we will continue to present truthful information about what is happening in Ukraine at the Vienna platform even though certain Westerners act like they are in some crazy circus during our report. They jump out of their seats, run out of the room, yell and leave for refreshments for fear of finding out the true state of things, which is offered to them in the form of speeches, information, and data. I can see this in Western journalists with whom I talk and to whom I give interviews. As I take their questions, I try to show them the materials, but they turn away from them. I have never seen this before. They waive their arms and are not willing to see things as if they are afraid to touch the truth. They are afraid that they will allow themselves to move away from a pre-existing position for a second and their sand castles will crumble and then they will be left face to face with the truth. And then it will get scary.
We encourage everyone who is interested in the subject to regularly read what our Permanent Representative to the OSCE has to say and other materials on the Foreign Ministry website and social media. We take questions and provide detailed comments replete with facts.
Japan’s decision to remove Azov battalion from the national survey of international terrorism
I have seen a lot, but I did not expect this from Japanese politicians. On the one hand, this is hardly surprising, considering the anti-Russia position of the incumbent Tokyo leadership. At the same time, their cynical attitude towards an important aspect of this situation in Ukraine is highly surprising.
Japan has removed Ukraine’s nationalist Azov battalion from its 2021 survey of international terrorism, which is a list of terrorist organisations or outrages perpetrated by them. The list is based on the data for last year collected by Japanese researchers, including diplomats, experts on foreign affairs and journalists. And now, they have excluded the Azov battalion. But that’s not the worst thing.
Japanese specialists apologised for including this military unit in their list of terrorist organisations. It appears that they have promptly forgotten that the Azov battalion had perpetrated numerous bloody crimes in Donbass. Official Tokyo has revealed itself to be an accomplice of neo-Nazism.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the Government of Japan sides with inhuman regimes. Japan has failed to learn a lesson from its alliance with Nazi Germany. Today, in the wake of its WWII militarist crimes, Japan is ready to cover for its ideological associates in Ukraine, as stated by the Fumio Kishida administration.
It appears that Tokyo has forgotten that Japanese citizens experienced terrorist attacks in various regions recently. At the same time, Russia was closely involved in helping to resolve these incidents.
By whitewashing terrorists and neo-Nazis, Japan impairs its own security in the first place.
Polish authorities seize Russian diplomatic property in Warsaw
Polish authorities seized Russian diplomatic property at 100 Sobieskiego Street in Warsaw. These actions are illegal.
We would like to point out that the land plot for building this facility was allotted under an intergovernmental agreement of December 27, 1974. The construction was financed by the Soviet Union in full compliance with the law. This building has the status of diplomatic property of the Russian Federation. Consequently, Poland’s actions are a flagrant violation of international law, including the bilateral intergovernmental agreement and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We would like to ask Warsaw: Don’t you have any other buildings? Are you so poor? Are you unable to procure any other buildings? Are you resorting to theft? Is this all that the Polish administration can do? You should have told us earlier, so that we would have known what to expect.
The position of the Polish Foreign Ministry looks particularly embarrassing in this situation. Instead of protecting a foreign diplomatic mission from encroachments on its property, its officials said that they are satisfied to conduct the procedure of seizing the building at 100 Sobieskiego Street and transferring it to the Polish State Treasury.
At the same time, the Polish Foreign Ministry resorts to demagoguery as it discusses the elimination of the real estate disparity in Russian-Polish relations. Is this what they call theft nowadays? I didn’t know that. I will add this term to the diplomatic dictionary.
The Ministry is well aware that over the past two years, the Russian side has been working actively and purposefully to resolve this problem. In July 2021, we presented the Polish Ambassador with a list of properties that we are ready to hand over to Poland. However, Poland has refused to conduct dialogue.
We have to reiterate that any unfriendly step by Warsaw will receive a proportionate and effective response.
40th anniversary of the Argentine-British conflict over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands
It is 40 years since the start of an armed conflict between Argentina and the UK over the dispute concerning the sovereignty of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands. Even though the case in point is long past events on a faraway archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, this topic is being actively discussed internationally and remains relevant, including from the standpoint that it is highly important to take into account each other’s interests in the course of talks on difficult international problems.
Despite numerous UN resolutions urging the parties to the dispute to enter into negotiations without delay in order to settle the Malvinas issue by peaceful means, the UK government continues to demonstrate its obstinate unwillingness to start a direct dialogue on this matter with Argentina. This clear disdain for the opinion of the international community does no credit to a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Moreover, not only does London refuse to talk to Buenos Aires, but the British are actually making attempts to change the archipelago’s status by launching business operations and militarising the islands and the adjacent territorial waters.
I would like to remind the parties about their obligations under the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (Tlatelolco Treaty) and the Additional Protocols to the treaty. Some recently revealed archive facts testify to the deployment of nuclear antisubmarine munitions on board British ships that were involved in the hostilities in the area of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands. We support Argentina’s demand that the UK provide guarantees that there are no such arms on ships that were sunk in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
We also notice the double standards in the UK’s approaches to the archipelago. London is alleging that the status of these islands was finally determined by the referendum in March 2013. But it is not disconcerted by the fact that the voters in the referendum were mostly UK nationals living on the Malvinas, who voted overwhelmingly (99.3%) that the islands should retain their status of a British overseas territory.
The question that has to be answered in this connection is why the British believe that the referendum results are enough to determine the status of the disputed territories, but are refusing to recognise the free vote of the people of Crimea and Donbass, who have unequivocally voted for independence from Ukraine and, in the case of Crimea, for joining Russia?
In other words, the situation involving the Malvinas clearly shows how the British attitude to one international issue or another is dictated by time-serving considerations rather than by the letter and the spirit of law. Their law is the current political expedience. In this sense, the lessons of the Falklands War can be directly and unequivocally projected to present-day events. This helps to understand who and how acted in history to accommodate their own interests with a recurrence to methods of this kind. And they never faced responsibility for that.
We would like to stress again that Russia’s position on the problem of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands is one of principle and has never changed. We are in favour of direct talks between Argentina and the UK, which should resume as soon as possible with a view to achieving a peaceful and final settlement of the sovereignty dispute in keeping with the UN resolutions.
We think it important to refrain from steps capable of complicating the beginning of these talks. We are proceeding from the premise that it is inadmissible to militarise the southern Atlantic Ocean and that the parties must strictly abide by their international obligations, specifically those they assumed under the Tlatelolco Treaty and the Additional Protocols thereto.
The UK-held referendum on the identity of the Malvinas has not affected Russia’s position: we do not regard the referendum as grounds for the recognition of London’s sovereignty over the islands.
Britain’s colonial and neocolonial practices
This is a historical subject, but it is directly connected with the present time. We sometimes come across interesting articles. We quote both Russian and Western material to avoid any accusation of bias.
One such item was published by The New Yorker, The British Empire Was Much Worse Than You Realise, by Sunil Khilnani, a professor of politics and history at Ashoka University, India, and prior to that, a professor of politics and director of the India Institute at King’s College London. He provides numerous links to respected Western academics to show convincingly that the bloody British colonialist practices, hiding under the myth of a “liberal empire,” still await scrutiny and possibly harsh judgement. In other words, we recommend all supporters of the British “liberal” tradition to read that article carefully.
As for us, this article has highlighted the timely nature of the new Historical Materials section on the Foreign Ministry’s website. The facts provided there were also mentioned and assessed by the Indian professor. I would like to provide several quotations so that you will see who is teaching us how to live our lives.
“More than half a century after the British Empire entered its endgame, historians are nowhere near a full assessment of the carnage shrouded by its preacherly cant, and, later, by administrators’ bonfires of documents as they prepared for the last boat out. The richest sense we have of the damage inflicted on colonies tends to come in regional silos (…) from South Africa to India, Ireland to Palestine, and on to Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, and Aden, revealing a pattern visible only in the long view. As military and police personnel crisscrossed the Empire, spreading techniques of repression far and wide, the higher-ups rarely checked such violence. Instead, over and again, they gave it the full force of law – sustaining more brutality still.”
“The practice of blowing Indian sepoys from cannons after the 1857 uprising, the Maxim-gun slaughter of Mahdists [Sudan] in the eighteen-nineties, the use of concentration camps in the Boer wars, the massacre of peaceful protesters in Amritsar [India, 1919], reprisal killings and the sacking of civilian property in Ireland: all this state-inflicted savagery was just the British Empire warming up. The British paramilitary cadre (…) became the basis of an increasingly violent ruling culture that sought to reassert control in the aftermath of the Second World War, when the Empire needed colonial resources to rebuild a depleted economy and to bulk up a waning geopolitical status.”
Professor Khilnani writes, citing from Caroline Elkins’ book Imperial Reckoning, that the suppression of the Kenyan ethnic group, the Kikuyu, provided a shining example of the tried and tested British colonial strategy in the UN era. For many decades, Britain used the strategy of detention, beatings, starvation, torture, forced hard labour, rape, and castration, designed to break the resistance of the Kikuyu. In 1957, responding to the uprising of a clandestine Kenyan nationalist movement, the Mau Mau, London launched a brutal campaign called Operation Progress at the initiative of a British colonial governor. More than a million men, women, and children were forced into barbed-wire village compounds and concentration camps for re-education.
These are British traditions, the traditions of those who are teaching us how to live our lives. We urge them to look at themselves and their history. We understand that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss considers history to be beside the point and prefers to rely on modern-day realities. But the trouble is that they refuse to see these realities as well, for the simple reason that as soon as they see today’s realities, they will become part of tomorrow’s history, which they will need to review. For them, history does not exist. But it does, and it is a hard fact.
In modern times, when the plaintiffs were collecting and requesting evidence to substantiate their lawsuits, Her Majesty’s Government admitted that it had removed substantial colonial archives from Kenya and 36 other former territories. They hid the documents in a secret warehouse in Hanslope Park, which the Foreign Office shared with British secret services. Developed democracies always behave like this.
What was concealed in these archives, and why did it become necessary to hide them so securely? Most importantly, it appears that they conceal the not-so-liberal toolkit of the imperial administration. Paramilitary methods and armoured vehicles were used in Ireland. Villages were bombed and shelled in Mesopotamia. Doberman Pinscher dogs tracked down and attacked suspects in South Africa. Colonial authorities in India employed interrogation methods and systematic solitary confinement. Human shields were used in the North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. British instructors are now teaching similar tactics to Ukrainian Neo-Nazis. They have rich experience, they practiced these tactics on people whom they considered inferior in various parts of the world. They can now pass on the fallen banner of terror. Well, this is exactly what they have been doing all these years in Ukraine.
One British soldier recalled how Arab prisoners were used. If high-explosive landmines were found, it was the prisoners who would detonate them; this method was rather mean, but we liked it, the soldier recalled. We can now see the same situation. It is rather mean to supply weapons to Ukraine. They are now using these weapons to kill people in a particularly vicious manner. We can see what has happened to the Azov battalion and other units over the years. These people have only strengthened their ideology of hate. It is rather mean for the United Kingdom to allocate money and weapons and to exhort others. However, they like it, as the British soldier who watched high-explosive devices blow Arab prisoners to smithereens recalled. They inherit this age-old brutality which is simply glossed over and concealed under the guise of a developed democracy, liberalism and freedoms.
It appears that the British military authorities invented some other methods in Palestine, including night-time raids on suspicious communities, stuffing oil-soaked sand down the throats of local residents, keeping village residents in outdoor cages, and the large-scale demolition of homes. By streamlining this tactic on the Palestinians, British officers acquired skills that they later used in Aden, now southern Yemen, on the Golden Coast (Ghana), in North Rhodesia (Zambia), Kenya and Cyprus. Palestine became a “training camp” for the British Empire’s punitive forces, and the Ukrainian bridgehead served the same purpose for them. They practised various methods in Palestine and eventually intended to use them on our own territory.
Why are we now recalling the gloomy colonial past of the United Kingdom and the entire world? They are the ones who are reminding us about this. We would like to forget about it, it is disgusting to even touch upon this matter, but we need to know about it. London’s methods are still here. They successfully export and use these methods. We have seen this in Ukraine. Obviously, methods aimed at suppressing Donbass were taught by British instructors and political mentors. Their style is absolutely recognisable.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Kiev regime is preparing to stage additional mendacious provocations under the guidance of the highly experienced British secret services in order to accuse the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of allegedly mistreating civilians in the Sumy Region of Ukraine. Who are you talking to about brutality? Have you seen what nationalist battalions did to prisoners of war, regardless of what country they came from? No one has the right to behave like this with regard to anyone. Service personnel do not behave like this, only extremists, terrorists and simply sick people. They shoot people in the legs, gouge out their eyes and beat them up. They record all this and post the footage online, without fearing that they will be tracked down and arrested using these video grabs. Ukrainian neo-Nazis take special pride in this. They have learned their lessons well from NATO instructors, including those from the UK.
According to British “stage directors,” retreating Russian military units allegedly killed and terrorised civilians. Yet another fake story, intended for Western media outlets and aimed to whip up Russophobia.
It would be interesting to know whether the entire international community will eventually comprehend the role of London. In this connection, I am also talking about the citizens of Ukraine, who are now being used as typical colonial expendables.
Two Europes or how to read news in the historical context
According to news agency reports, the Swedish Dockworkers Union has decided to blockade all Russia-affiliated ships. The union sent a letter to Minister for Infrastructure Tomas Eneroth, urging him to ban Russian ships from calling at Swedish ports. Otherwise the union will impose a blockade on its own. “We have notified the employers’ organisation and the mediation institute that a blockade will be implemented,” said Erik Helgeson, vice-president of the union.
So, they have introduced a “blockade” against the Russians, to wit, against Russian sailors, the Russian merchant fleet, and St Petersburg, its main port on the Baltic Sea. Once again: Sweden has imposed a blockade against Russia’s main port in St Petersburg. Doesn’t it ring a bell? This is not the first blockade in the history of Russia’s northern capital. You know nothing about this. You were only told about how the Americans “saved” everyone during World War II, how they “liberated” nations and brought you “freedom.” And was the “threat” coming from the Soviet Union and Germany? This is totally untrue. And the Swedish union has put itself on an equal footing with the Nazis. But perhaps it thinks again that it is on the right side of history.
During the Great Patriotic War (WWII), the Nazis also assembled a fine European “union” around Leningrad. There were hundreds of Swedish volunteers among that company. Take a look, perhaps you will find relatives of those who besieged Leningrad 80 years ago among the current union activists. Seventy-two Swedes were even taken prisoner by Soviet forces. We recall this each time we see Swedish neo-Nazis among the Ukrainian punitive squads that have been operating in Donbass since 2014. Do people in Sweden know that their volunteers have been killing peaceful civilians in Donbass over the past eight years? Where have you been? Who have you announced a blockade to? To no one? And why?
The predecessors of the current fans of the Swedish port blockade dutifully transported millions of tonnes of iron ore to the Reich. Without this ore, the Nazis would not have overrun the whole of Europe. Do you feel you are to blame in any way? A day will perhaps come when you apologise for behaving in this way back then? At that time, you didn’t figure out right away what side of history to take. You were just supplying the Reich with resources. This is exactly what you are doing now, supplying neo-Nazis with weapons, money and medicines ̵ supplying them to people with swastikas on their sleeves! They salute each other like the collaborationists did during World War II. They read the same books, watch the same films, and profess the same logic.
The Holocaust and the atrocities, of which their victims had first-hand knowledge, also happened thanks to those who failed to “make head or tail” of the situation and did not immediately support the right side of history. One in every three German tanks, guns, rifles, and cartridges was manufactured from Swedish raw materials. They were giving all this to the Reich, to those whom everyone at that time regarded as “heroes.” Is there a day, when you apologise for failing to figure it out? You don’t celebrate May 8, the day when Europe was liberated from Nazism, you just apologise, do you? If there were such a day, it would be easier to identify the right side of European history.
The above are not Russian data. This was calculated by the Swedish historian Rolf Karlbom: between 1933 and 1943, Swedish supplies accounted for an average of 43 percent of German consumption of iron ore, in terms of its iron content. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, commander of the German Navy, used to say that it would be “totally impossible to conduct the war, if the navy failed to guarantee iron ore deliveries from Sweden.” And it was delivered. The Reich was waging warfare based on Swedish supplies.
The supplies not only included [iron] ore but also cellulose, timber, bearings, machinery and equipment, which the Third Reich needed badly. It was a profitable and prestigious business for Sweden, which also provided transit routes for military cargo. In 1940-1943, Swedish railway companies transported 2.14 million German troops and over 100,000 railway carriages with German military cargo.
Are you copying your own experience of more than 80 year ago by delivering weapons, food and humanitarian aid and transferring funds to neo-Nazis and blocking us? You are free to do so. You can watch CNN and other US networks, which is as instructive as looking at wallpaper photos, thinking that you are looking at the world. The Nazis also used Sweden’s airspace and airfields.
You are doing what you did back then, closing airspace and blocking money transfers and everything else you can. At the same time, you are providing unlimited opportunities to those who have been killing peaceful civilians for eight years based on their nationalist ideology. This is not a new ideology that needs to be researched. They never tried to hide the fact that they supported collaborators, the Third Reich, Hitler and Waffen SS. They wear the same uniforms, conduct torchlight manifestations and have put up the portraits of those who collaborated with the Nazis 80 years ago.
When we hear that Britain has supplied NLAW anti-tank weapons, we know that these systems were produced in Sweden and would have hardly been exported without Stockholm’ approval. Sweden sent weapons to the Nazis and blockaded our cities back then, and it is doing the same now, as if nothing has changed in this world. They have risen up from hell.
Greece is a country that lost about 1 million lives in the war against fascism. We know what the Greek people think about the current situation. They are writing to us, shouting with pain and impotence, unable to influence their government, which has become a puppet regime.
The personnel of the Greek railway company TrainOSE refused to take part in the transportation of US and NATO armoured vehicles to Ukraine, because ethnic Greeks have always lived there. They live in Ukraine, in the southeastern regions of that country and in Crimea. They are telling the truth. There are few ethnic Swedes living there as a minority group, but there are many Swedish instructors, as well as combatants who came as volunteers.
According to the news portals of Greek public associations, the staff of the Thessaloniki electric train department have refused to move to Alexandroupolis to service the trains scheduled to deliver NATO tanks from that port city to Romania and Poland for their subsequent transfer to Ukraine. When none of the railway personnel volunteered for the job, TrainOSE tried to force them to do this in accordance with their employment contracts. The Thessaloniki trade unions interfered, adopting a resolution to protest against the use of the Greek railway service for transporting NATO equipment and the intimidation of the personnel who refuse to take part. I would like to ask Athens about its choice. Is it for peace or for war? That resolution has been supported by more than a dozen Greek trade unions in many sectors.
The obvious conclusion is that there are two Europes, just as 80 years ago. One Europe allowed the trainloads with Nazi tanks headed to the east to move across its territory, and even waved handkerchiefs at them, provided accommodation for the Third Reich’s SS and army personnel, and continued to enjoy life. The other Europe went underground, knowing that the man-hating ideology had no place in their country.
Today, just as 80 years ago, one Europe is trying to provide direct assistance to the neo-Nazis at all levels, using propaganda and giving the neo-Nazis the material resources which they take from their own citizens. The other Europe is resisting this. Yes, there is Resistance with a capital R in Europe against the governments and employers who are following the dictate of the aggressive anti-Russia Euro-Atlantic bloc, which has actually become the accomplice of the neo-Nazis. This is what they are resisting. They have stood up against a mechanism programmed by the cancel couture.
If you refuse to pledge loyalty to the neo-Nazis’ supporters, you will be deleted. They will not simply persecute you; they will create a situation where you will cease to exist, making you regret being alive. They have honed this method to perfection. We call it oppression.
Renaming Russian fortress in Hawaii
We regret that the anti-Russia campaign unleashed in the United States has affected the common historical heritage of our countries.
In the spirit of the cancel culture that has taken hold in the West, the American authorities, who just recently destroyed monuments to historical figures, including even the founding fathers, at the demand of the “progressive liberal public,” are now engaged in eradicating references to Russia, renaming streets and historical sites.
How did this happen? Does history exist or not? Or did the past happen without leaving any historical record? Is it alive or not? Please explain this to me. It is impossible to understand. Is this "account closed" or can you go back to the past time and time again, change what you don’t like and then come back to the present? How do you deal with all this: with the destruction of monuments, renaming of streets, everything the entire international community has lived with for many years, admired and paid tribute to? It all disappeared in a whiff, as if it had never happened, but not because something new has come in its stead. Simply because they need to get rid of it. The main thing is that no trace is left of that past.
This is what happened to the Russian Fort Elizabeth, which was built on the Hawaiian island of Kauai by the Russian-American Company in 1816. The local legislative authority decided that it should now be called Pa’ula’ula, which stands for "Red Walls" in Hawaiian.
Though they say there was a public discussion, no one was interested in the opinion of our compatriots and professional historians. The document must still be approved by the governor, but the state administration has already ordered signs with the new name without waiting for the formalities to be completed.
We can only guess at where the anti-Russia campaign promoted by Washington will go. However, we hope that common sense and awareness of the futility of any attempts to “cancel” Russia, which is simply impossible, will prevail sooner or later, and sanity will gain the upper hand.
International Day for Monuments and Sites
April 18 marks the International Day for Monuments and Sites, which the Assembly of the International Council for the Protection of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) established in 1982 and UNESCO adopted the following year, during its 22nd General Conference.
Each year, ICOMOS and its national committees, including the Russian committee, organise events and activities to draw attention to the important humanitarian issue of preserving the world’s cultural heritage and to promote international dialogue and mutual understanding. Heritage and Climate is the central theme for the upcoming celebration.
The Russian Federation is an active and responsible participant in key international legal acts in this sphere, namely, the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Our country has 31 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including 20 cultural monuments. The tentative list includes 28 sites for inclusion in the UNESCO list. As part of its current chairmanship of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which is the governing body of the 1972 Convention, Russia pays special attention to the further development of international cooperation in matters of conservation and sustainable management of world heritage sites on a professional and depoliticised basis.
In pursuance of the 1954 Hague Convention and in accordance with a separate order issued by the Russian Defence Ministry during the course of the special military operation to protect the republics of Donbass, our country’s armed forces are taking effective measures designed to ensure the safety of world cultural heritage sites, museums, religious institutions and places of worship in Ukraine.
Unfortunately, a number of foreign states have forgotten their obligations to preserve the monuments and to show respect for the common historical and cultural heritage. This did not start today, not even this year. I would like to go over some of the most recent acts of vandalism.
Cases of desecration and vandalism with regard to the Soviet military memorial heritage continue unabated in Latvia.
In March 2022, in the town of Vidrizi, the vandals doused a monument with paint and left demeaning graffiti on the memorial to 99 soldiers and local residents who died during the Second World War.
On February 28, 2022, the Glory to Liberators of Riga monument in Riga was doused with paint in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. On February 26, the monument to the 245th Soviet Army Rifle Division (Brivibas Avenue, Riga) was doused with blue and yellow paint and vases of flowers were scattered around the mass military burial ground. On February 25, an act of vandalism was committed against the memorial to the Liberators of Riga and Latvia from Nazi invaders; the pedestal of the monument was doused with paint in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, and a heinous motto was written on it.
On December 1, 2021, unidentified individuals committed an act of vandalism against the memorial to the liberators of Riga and Latvia from Nazi invaders (the word “occupiers” was written with black paint).
On September 10, 2021, unidentified individuals dismantled and stole a commemorative plaque from a memorial rock installed at the site of the start of the operation to cross Kish Lake in October 1944.
On February 24, 2021, a monument at the military burial site of the Great Patriotic War in Jekabpils was destroyed and the 76mm gun was dismantled.
After the special military operation began in Ukraine, cases of desecration of monuments to Soviet soldiers became more frequent in Lithuania.
They occurred in the towns of Baubliai, Sheta and Kurkliai on April 10; in Marijampolė on April 8; and in Žasliai and Pašaltuonis on March 2. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened inquiries into these cases. In April, Foreign Minister of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis came up with an openly blasphemous argument speaking about the need to get rid of the Soviet monuments, suggesting that they should be covered with Ukrainian flags as a temporary solution. This proposal comes from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Is he all right? This is outlandish thinking based on unfathomable reasoning. Do you recognise these monuments or do you want to tear them down? If you want to tear them down, what do Ukrainian flags have to do with it? You do not recognise something that you consider unworthy of being present in your country and then package it with the flag of people whom you consider worthy of the honour. The heads of local governments have begun following his advice. In Klaipeda, the mayor initiated a discussion about relocating the monument to Soviet liberators to somewhere outside that city. The Raseiniai District authorities began to cover the monuments in black boxes in anticipation of further directives from the central authorities. This is their level of history and culture.
Lithuania’s Department of Cultural Heritage is working through an initiative to exclude the monuments from the list of cultural heritage sites, which will then allow the Lithuanian regime to further crack down on Soviet monuments that “promote war, aggression and symbols of a totalitarian state.” The Kaunas City Hall has started drafting a black list of memorials. They do not conceal their goal which is to create a legal basis for making decisions to transfer, remove or change the names of the Soviet monuments.
On November 25, 2020, a monument to Soviet soldiers was vandalised in Obeliai in the Rokiskis District Municipality, Lithuania. Swastikas were painted on the base of the monument and on the gravestones with the names of the fallen servicemen. The following day, the Rokiskis district authorities posted a photograph to show that all the offensive drawings had been wiped off and the monument had been restored to its former state.
On September 4, 2020, paint was splashed, and insults were written on a monument to Soviet soldiers in Ziezmariai in the Kaisiadorys District Municipality, Lithuania. The monument stands near the burial ground of over 920 Soviet servicemen and officers, who died liberating the town from the Nazis. The Russian Embassy immediately contacted the local administration, and the police opened a vandalism investigation. The maintenance services of the city promptly cleaned the monument and put it in order.
On June 14, 2020, the Day of Mourning and Hope when Lithuania commemorates the victim of Stalinist repressions, vandals splashed paint on a monument to Hero of the Soviet Union Afanasy Loshakov in Seta in the Kedainiai District Municipality. Mayor of the Kedainiai District Valentinas Tamulis condemned the event as a disruption of public order he would not tolerate.
On April 10, 2022, unidentified persons painted a monument to Soviet soldiers in Otepaa in the colours of the Ukrainian flag and wrote the letter U in blue paint on it.
On April 8, 2022, vandals splashed paint and wrote the names of Nazi leaders on a monument near the burial ground of Soviet soldiers in Tapa, Estonia.
In March 2022, Nazi symbols were drawn on an obelisk near the burial ground of Soviet soldiers in the centre of Rakvere, Estonia. The burial ground of the Soviet soldiers who died fighting Nazism during the Great Patriotic War was vandalised in Tartu.
On October 1, 2021, unidentified persons splashed red paint on a memorial stone to the servicemen who fought in Afghanistan in Lasnamae, an administrative district of Tallinn, Estonia. The monument was cleaned by October 4.
In April 2022, vandals defiled a monument to the victims of Nazism at the Rahumae Cemetery in Tallinn.
On April 7, 2021, unidentified persons overturned the memorial stone that was installed in Parnu, Estonia, at the site where the Nazis executed the soldiers of the Sindi Tank Destroyer Battalion in July 1941.
On March 1, 2021, unidentified persons desecrated a T-34 tank monument on the bank of the Narva River on the road from Narva to Narva-Joesuu.
The situation in Poland is terrible. The Polish authorities are dismantling the so-called “symbolic” Soviet memorials that were installed outside cemeteries. Warsaw believes that such memorials are not protected by the Russian-Polish intergovernmental agreement on cemeteries and remembrance sites of victims of wars and repression of February 22, 1994. Under amendments to the law prohibiting propaganda of communism and other totalitarian regimes of Aril 1, 2016 (the so-called decommunisation law), which came into effect in October 2017 and February 2018, local governments were obliged to dismantle “communist symbols,” including monuments located outside cemeteries, by March 31, 2018. But we understand the real objective of these actions. They were not concerned about communism but wanted to erase the memory of those who liberated Poland.
As a result, only about 100 of the 561 memorials from the 1997 Russian-Polish list of memorial sites of the Soviet defenders who died during the liberation of Poland are still intact. These monuments were being quietly dismantled over the past years, and we have exposed cases when the Polish authorities did not notify us of their destruction. We learned about it from media reports and from information we received from local residents or compatriots.
Soviet memorials are regularly vandalised. On March 23, 2022, a monument to Soviet liberators was dismantled in Chrzowice, Poland. The “ceremony” was attended by Polish officials and was streamed live. What an achievement. This is how civilised nations act.
In 2022, Slovakia recorded five incidents when Russian (Soviet) military burial sites, war memorials and monuments were damaged.
On February 27, 2022, a monument to Soviet soldiers on Liberators Square, Kosice, was sprayed with paint.
On March 3, 2022, the Slavin war memorial complex in Bratislava was sprayed with paint.
On March 5, 2022, a Soviet Army monument in Svidnik was sprayed with paint.
On March 15, 2022, the Maly Slavin monument to Soviet pilots near Bratislava was sprayed with paint.
On March 26, 2022, a Red Army burial site in Bosaca Grun, Trencin, was sprayed with paint.
Just since the start of 2022, there have been two cases when Russian (Soviet) war memorials were vandalised in the Czech Republic.
On March 8, 2022, the statue of a Soviet soldier was removed from the pedestal of a monument to fallen Soviet soldiers in Pribyslav.
On March 26, 2022, a monument to Red Army soldier Belyakov near the Czech Foreign Ministry in Prague was sprayed with paint.
On April 3, 2020, a monument to Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev, a Hero of the Soviet Union, a Hero of Czechoslovakia, and an honourary citizen of Prague, installed on the Square of International Brigade in Prague in 1980, was dismantled.
On January 5, 2021, a monument to Red Army soldiers on Rudna Street in the Ostrava-Zabrze District in Ostrava was sprayed with a combustible liquid and torched.
On April 21, 2021, a monument to the Soviet soldier-liberator on Moravska Square in Brno was sprayed with paint, and offensive messages were written on it.
Following the 2014 coup in Ukraine, nationalist and pro-Nazi organisations, encouraged by the Kiev authorities, have regularly vandalised memorials dedicated to Russian and Soviet historical figures, primarily those linked with the Great Patriotic War.
On February 3, 2022, a monument to Hero of the Soviet Union Anton Odukha, a partisan who fought in the Great Patriotic War, was demolished in Slavuta, Khmelnitsky Region.
On February 4, 2022, a monument to Russian military commander Alexander Suvorov was demolished in Poltava at the initiative of the Institute of National Memory. According to Oleg Pustovgar, the Institute’s representative, the reason for destroying the monument honouring one of the Russian Empire’s military commanders was to fight Soviet propaganda. If Suvorov is “an element of Soviet propaganda”, then it would be appropriate to cancel Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels! Are their names being deleted from encyclopedias in developed EU countries? Have they started burning their books? Here you are – there’s a lot of Soviet propaganda there.
Several monuments to Alexander Pushkin have been dismantled: on April 7, 2022, in Mukachevo, the Trans-Carpathian Region, on April 9, 2022, in Ternopol, and on April 10, 2022, in Uzhgorod. Judging by the frenzied destruction of Pushkin’s entire legacy, I don’t know what to call him. Pushkin seems to be the main enemy of today’s Ukraine. Nikolai Gogol was very popular in the Soviet Union, streets were named after him, and there are many monuments to him. How does Ukraine treat his legacy today? How will other countries treat him? Or was this great Ukrainian writer part of Soviet propaganda? There is no way out of this ideological impasse.
On April 11, 2022, in Cherkassy, a bust of Alexander Pushkin was painted yellow and blue, the colours of the Ukrainian state flag. This is rather offensive. Honestly. That same day, they dismantled a Soviet T-34 tank that symbolised the heroism of the Red Army. That’s real xenophobic logic for you: crushing and wrecking everything in their way.
On April 12, 2021, a monument to Soviet soldiers who liberated this city from the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War was dismantled in Stryi, the Lvov Region.
On January 12, 2021, vandals demolished and toppled 17 tombstones on a common grave containing the remains of the soldiers-liberators killed during the Great Patriotic War at a memorial cemetery in Kherson.
In the early hours of May 9, 2021, monuments at Soviet military burial sites were damaged in Novy Rozdol and Sudovaya Vishnya in the Lvov Region.
On July 23, 2021, the Combat Glory Monument in Lvov honouring Soviet soldiers killed during the Great Patriotic War while liberating Lvov was dismantled completely. The dismantling began in 2018 with the removal of the statue of the Soviet soldier and of the Mother-Russia of Lvov, which were moved to the Museum of Terror.
On September 6, 2021, Kiev authorities dismantled the Kiev-Moscow friendship memorial.
On September 30, 2021, local authorities in Kolomiya, Ivano-Frankovsk Region, removed an obelisk from a common grave of Red Army soldiers. In the process, several tombstones bearing the names of the people buried there were broken.
On October 26, 2021, unidentified persons destroyed Soviet-era memorial plaques in Lokhvitsa, Poltava Region, and pulled down the monument to the Red Army’s Vasily Chapayev in Lubny.
On October 25-27, 2021, a large-scale copy of the Order of the Patriotic War, the central element of the Field of Mars memorial burial site, was dismantled by decision of the Executive Committee of the Lvov City Council on the pretext of “renovating and rethinking the space around the Lychakov Military Cemetery.”
On November 2, 2021, a monument to the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War in the town of Dergachi, Kharkov Region, was desecrated, and a granite monument to the soldiers of the 227th Regiment of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, who died while defending Kiev, was taken down.
On November 5, 2021, nationalists from Society of the Future (the political wing of the far-right movement S14) damaged the monument to Soviet soldiers in the village of Zubra, Lvov Region.
On November 28, 2021, a monument to Extraordinary Commission officers, who fought for the Revolution, was taken down in Kalinovka, Kiev Region, as part of the effort to implement the law on de-communisation. Before the demolition, “NKVD are butchers” and “Glory to Ukraine” was written on the monument.
On December 7, 2021, the Eternal Flame was extinguished by someone who poured an energy drink on it at the Memorial Complex of Martial Glory in Poltava.
On February 4, 2020, nationalists removed a commemorative plaque with a bas-relief of Marshal Georgy Zhukov from the wall of the student hostel at Mechnikov Odessa National University in Odessa, where the Staff of the Odessa Military District, which Zhukov headed in 1946-1948, was located. This was the last bas-relief commemorating the Soviet military leader in the city.
On February 10, 2020, unidentified persons sprayed green paint over the monument to General Nikolai Vatutin in Kiev, which was erected on his grave site in Mariinsky Park.
On May 9, 2020, the Victory Banner on the main monument to the Liberator Soldier in Shelkovichny Park in Slavyansk, Donetsk Region, was painted with the colours of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army flag.
On May 19-20, 2020, the sculpture of Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Kharkov was spray painted red two nights in a row.
On October 12, 2020, the Glory Memorial commemorating Soviet soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War, was desecrated in Rovno, with unidentified persons writing in white paint the name of a political party on the stele in the sculpted composition.
On February 16, 2019, in Semenovka, Zaporozhye Region, vandals plundered and damaged the burial sites of soldiers, who died while liberating Melitopol from the Nazi invaders during WWII. They stole part of the railing and broke the star on the Eternal Flame.
On March 6, 2019, unidentified persons stole the bronze bas-relief from the monument to the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov on the Hill of Glory in Lvov.
On March 14, 2019, unidentified persons damaged sculptures in the Monument to Glory in Rovno.
On March 27, 2019, members of the Sokol nationalist organisation smashed the sculptured portrait of Hero of the Soviet Union General Nikolai Vatutin, commander of the First Ukrainian Front, in Feskovka, and on April 14, 2019, did the same in Novye Borovichi, Chernigov Region.
On May 9, 2019, unidentified persons smashed the monument to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War in Mezhirich, Pavlograd District, Dnepropetrovsk Region.
On June 2, 2019, National Corps pickets toppled the sculptured portrait of Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Kharkov during a congress of city authorities.
On July 9, 2019, in Chuguyev, Kharkov Region, unidentified persons damaged a memorial wall with the names of Red Army soldiers who died while liberating the town.
On July 16, 2019, in Yagotin, Kiev Region, members of the local chapter of Svitanok, a far-right nationalist organisation, took down the sculpture of Georgy Zhukov.
On July 21, 2019, unidentified persons desecrated the monument to General Nikolai Vatutin in Poltava by writing the word “enemy” in red paint on the monument.
On August 24, 2019, the sculpture of the Soviet partisan and Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Prikhodko was damaged in Zdolbunov, Rovno Region.
On September 5, 2019, a large-scale copy of the Order of the Patriotic War, the central element of the Field of Mars memorial burial site in Lvov, was desecrated, with vandals leaving inscriptions in red paint, reading “Invaders,” “Communism,” “Hammer and Sickle – Death and Hunger.”
On November 10, 2019, someone wrote “butcher” in red paint on the memorial plaque to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Odessa.
On November 20, 2019, red paint was sprayed over the monument to Georgy Zhukov in Kharkov.
The ongoing “war against monuments” continues in Moldova.
On March 2, 2022, a monument to the legendary T-34 tank was smeared with the colours of the Ukrainian flag near Leuseni, Hincesti District. Interestingly, responsibility for this act of vandalism was claimed by Anatol Salaru, Moldovan ex-minister of defence.
On March 4, 2022, the Immortality Monument to the 1,250 soldiers from 31 local villages, who died during the Great Patriotic War, was desecrated near the village of Ciniceuti, Rezina District.
On January 28, 2021, vandals destroyed the monument to Hero of the Soviet Union Army General Vasily Margelov in Dubossary, Transnistria. But it was restored for Airborne Troops Day marked on August 2.
On February 1, 2021, “Death to Invaders” was written on the monument to the 161 Rifle Regiment of the 95th Moldavian Rifle Division in the village of Rusca, Hincesti District.
On March 22, 2021, an obelisk commemorating the heroes from the 2nd Cavalry Corps, who died in the summer of 1941, was desecrated near the village of Ivancea, Orhei District.
On August 21, 2021, vandals smashed a memorial stone at the monument to the 3rd Uman Paratroops Division of the Guards near the village of Corpaci, Edinet District. This division was the first to reach the USSR’s state border in the area of the Prut River in March 1944.
On August 23, 2021, unidentified persons in Chisinau damaged the memorial inscription dating back to the Great Patriotic War: “Reviewed. No mines,” which the municipal authorities of the Moldovan capital had recognised as a historical monument.
On October 26, 2021, a monument was unveiled in central Chisinau commemorating Romanian soldiers who fought on the side of the German Reich. The monument replaced another monument to the 20th anniversary of hostilities in eastern Romania near Meresti and Marusesti in the summer of 1917, when Russian and Romanian forces were pitted against the German army.
But there are opposite examples of a caring attitude to the memory of Soviet soldiers, which stand out against the background of general madness.
On October 7, 2021, a ceremony was held to open a monument to the Soviet crew of the Catalina flying boat that was destroyed on Soroya Island in northern Norway. We see individuals and governments of states showing a caring attitude, but what is happening today is beyond reason.
Historical significance of the Catherine the Great Manifesto on Crimea’s accession into Russia
On April 19, 1783, Empress Catherine the Great signed the Manifesto on the Accession of Crimea, Taman and Kuban into the Russian Empire. This step was dictated by the desire to ensure the security of Russia’s southern borders. Symbolically, Crimea also had an important ideological significance for Russia: Grand Prince Vladimir was baptised in Chersonesus in 988.
After the second Russian-Turkish war (1768-1774), the Ottoman Porte recognised the independence of Crimea in the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca of 1774. The Russian Empire gained the fortresses of Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn and a substantial part of the steppe between the Dnieper and the Bug rivers. Russia obtained access to the Black Sea, as well as reaffirmed its rights to the territory of Kabarda, Azov and Azov lands, conquered way back by Peter the Great. However, the Ottoman Empire did not give up hope of regaining domination over the peninsula, of raiding and pillaging the lands.
Assessing the advantages of Crimea’s joining Russia, one of the closest associates of Catherine the Great and the ideologist of joining the peninsula, Grigory Potemkin wrote in 1782: “Crimea with its position breaks our borders... You are obliged to increase the glory of Russia... Acquisition of Crimea will not enrich you; it will only bring peace... With Crimea you will also gain supremacy in the Black Sea.”
The Manifesto completed an important stage in the struggle with the Ottoman Empire for influence over the northern coast of the Black Sea and provided access to the natural boundaries in the south. Russia could now build its Black Sea fleet and had the right of passage through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits. All this was a powerful impetus to the economic and demographic development of the northern Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts. This is especially for Liz Truss, who needs to learn where these seas are located.
The date of Crimea’s accession to Russia was approved at the federal level (No. 336-FZ of August 3, 2018).
Despite the fact that the region borders Ukraine, where the special military operation is currently underway, life in Crimea continues in a constructive way. On April 11, they celebrated Day of the Constitution of the Republic. The region continues to develop dynamically. It is experiencing a special time given both the flow of refugees and the challenges it has recently faced, despite all the attempts to make life there more difficult by our opponents. The people of Crimea will endure. They are a people with a historically tempered character. It is their culture and part of their tradition. It is hereditary.
President Vladimir Putin has instructed the federal Government to extend the state programme of socio-economic development of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol until 2027. Major Russian banks, Russian Railways and telecommunications companies are coming to Crimea. Mobile phone roaming has been abolished.
The North Crimean Canal, which was blocked by Ukraine in 2014 and has now been unblocked by Russia, is fully operational. This opens up new opportunities for developing agriculture. Already this year it is planned to set aside 850 hectares for rice crops, and the area for this crop will only expand.
There is no doubt that Crimea will develop in other directions as well. We expect further growth in tourist volumes, which will result in the rapid development of the services and hotel sectors, as well as the public catering network.
Crimeans are providing all possible assistance to the refugees arriving on their peninsula. What kind of future was in store for the residents of Crimea is clearly demonstrated by the atrocities committed by the nationalists and neo-Nazis during the liberation of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, which were under the Kiev’s control.
Whether others like it or not, Crimea’s future lies with Russia. For us, this issue is closed once and for all. No sanctions by the United States and its NATO allies will change our position. They can only strengthen it. So, the “masters of the world” can relax.
Liberation of right-bank Ukraine (Dnieper-Carpathian offensive)
The Red Army conducted the Dnieper-Carpathian strategic offensive operation from December 24, 1943 through April 17, 1944 in order to liberate Ukrainian regions on the western banks of the Dnieper River.
This overall offensive included 11 interlinked frontline operations with a common concept, namely: the Zhitomir-Berdichev, Kirovograd, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Rovno-Lutsk, Nikopol-Krivoy Rog, Proskurov-Chernovtsy, Bereznegovato-Snigiryovskaya, Polesye, Odessa, Tyrgu-Frumos, and Uman-Botoshansk operations. The offensive involved elements of the Red Army’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts commanded by Nikolay Vatutin, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky and Fyodor Tolbukhin. Soviet marshals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky coordinated the combat operations. The Red Army fielded over 2 million officers and soldiers, about 2,000 tanks, over 30,000 artillery weapons and mortars and 2,400 aircraft. Soviet forces faced about 1.8 million German and Romanian troops with over 25,000 pieces of military equipment.
In December 1943, Soviet forces took Zhitomir and Kirovograd. In January 1944, they liberated Novograd-Volynsky, Berdichev, Rovno and Lutsk. In February 1944, advancing Soviet forces managed to eliminate the Nikopol bridgehead and liberated Nikopol and Krivoy Rog.
The final Uman-Botoshansk operation involving elements of the 2nd Ukrainian Front ended on April 17, 1944. Soviet forces liberated southwestern Ukraine and part of the Moldavian SSR and almost completely routed the Wehrmacht’s 8th Army. In late winter and early spring 1944, advancing elements of the 2nd Ukrainian Front crossed six rivers step by step, without stopping, and during the spring floods.
Following the Dnieper-Carpathian offensive, the Red Army completely liberated Ukraine with its population of tens of millions and pushed the enemy back 250-400 kilometres to the west. Soviet forces restored southwestern Soviet state borders and then moved to Romania.
The Soviet victory came at a cost. On February 29, 1944, Ukrainian nationalists mortally wounded Army General Nikolay Vatutin, Commander of the Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front.
The Red Army’s victory in areas on the western banks of the Dnieper River made it possible to approach the borders of Poland, Czechoslovakia and to enter Romania. The Soviet victory spurred the national-liberation movement in central and southeastern Europe. Following the offensive, the frontline was located in direct proximity to food, crude oil and other strategic materiel sources in Romania and the Balkans, seen by Germany as vitally important. Soviet military successes tremendously impacted international politics. Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria started looking for ways to withdraw from the war. They quickly saw the right side of history. In turn, the Soviet Union’s allies expedited preparations for opening the Second Front in France.
On September 29, 2014 and in the run-up to the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Bank of Russia issued a commemorative anniversary coin entitled The Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive.
Today, April 13, is the 90th birthday of legendary photojournalist and master photographer Eduard Pesov.
Thanks to this legendary photographer, millions of people were able to see unique shots of the historical moments of international meetings and talks, photographs of the everyday lives of many statesmen of the Soviet era and modern Russia and foreign figures.
Pesov worked as an official photographer for Soviet and Russian foreign ministers, starting with Andrey Gromyko. During Yevgeny Primakov’s term, he became the official photographer for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Pesov’s trips covered the whole world – he crossed the equator six times, travelled almost all of America, and visited the most remote parts of the USSR from Bering Island to Kushka. He experienced a lot, and most importantly, he managed to capture all this and circulate these photos around the world. In his photos, he created a chronicle of Russian foreign policy and diplomacy (without his photos, visualisation would be difficult, and in many ways impossible). He did more than create images, he penetrated the essence of those events and the people he photographed.
Pesov is a laureate of numerous Russian and international photo exhibitions and a winner of the prestigious international World Press Photo’s Golden Eye award in 1982. In 2005, he received the national prize Golden Eye of Russia. He was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, 2 class, in 2007 and the Order of Friendship in 2012.
Pesov is distinguished by his attitude towards life and his sense of humor. Today Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov congratulated him on his 90th birthday. On behalf of our team, and especially our Information and Press Department, I would like to wish him good health and creative inspiration, and say “Wait in vain!” to any difficulties in his way, as he himself liked to say.
Maria Zakharova: The Federal Air Transport Agency has already provided a detailed reply to this question.
Maria Zakharova: As far as I know, the Russian Defence Ministry has already commented on this subject.
We hope that the above experts will conduct unbiased and unprejudiced work, if possible, and that they will question eyewitnesses without segregating them along ethnic lines. We expect that the shelling of Kramatorsk and Donetsk by Ukrainian nationalists will also be duly investigated. We have called for this, including at international venues.
It is not clear, however, why France, for example, has not expressed the need for this initiative over the past eight years. No one ever deemed it necessary to send at least one delegation, so as to help the Kiev regime investigate the crime involving the torching of the House of Trade Unions in Odessa where people were burned alive. Where were the French specialists then? Why did the European public at large fail to respond adequately to the reports on snipers, and why did it fail to express interest in establishing the truth, other than paying lip service and solidarising completely with the Kiev regime. In reality, they showed absolutely no interest in establishing the truth. Nevertheless, we remember the talks held by officials from Brussels. At that time, they told each other unequivocally that it was clear who had opened fire during the 2014 Maidan protests; that this had been done by forces supported by the opposition attacking legitimate authorities and state agencies.
Where were they during eight years of criminal activity as they killed children, and when people were buried alive? Where were they as graves and mass civilian burial sites were found, and when people were tortured and abducted? Where were all these “investigators?” And what about those who were imprisoned without prior investigation or trial? Take Kirill Vyshinsky, for example. Have you ever seen any statement by the French Interior Ministry that it would be nice to interview Mr Vyshinsky so he could tell them how they treated him as a journalist in Ukraine?
Where was everybody? Where was the Journalists’ Union? Did France make any requests? They only blocked attempts by Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk residents [to reveal the truth]. It was necessary to explain how they all lived and survived all these years, but no information was available. Moreover, they did everything they could to prevent any Western journalist from visiting the area. Today, however, every Western mainstream newspaper is eager to write what is going on there, although from only one perspective. Is this 21st century segregation? Do some people’s lives matter, and others do not?
Maria Zakharova: For eight years the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has been working on both sides of the contact line in Donbass using various types of equipment, including small, medium and long-range unmanned aerial vehicles and various types of cameras. The data from these devices were intended to monitor violations of the ceasefire and agreements to withdraw military equipment. The OSCE leadership has repeatedly assured us that the Mission does not transmit any operational information to Kiev. Interesting, indeed, how is that going?
Since March 7, all international personnel of the Special Monitoring Mission were withdrawn from Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR. The monitoring activities have all but ceased. On March 31, the Mission’s mandate also expired, which means it cannot continue its work, including with any equipment. It is necessary to find out in whose possession is the equipment of the Special Monitoring Mission which has not yet been removed and how it is being used. So where is the equipment? Where was it taken or to whom was it given? If the information about the use of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission’s equipment to adjust the trajectory of artillery used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine is confirmed, that would discredit the Mission and the leadership of the OSCE Secretariat, all those who covered this. Then the role of the OSCE will be completely different from what was presented in this story.
Unfortunately, there were precedents for the misuse of the OSCE equipment as reported in this case. Back in February, armoured cars of the Special Monitoring Mission in Mariupol ended up with the militants of the nationalist Azov Battalion. OSCE Secretary-General Helga Schmid ignored our warnings. She did absolutely everything to prevent these facts from being made public and said that “there is no need to spread fake news.” That’s what we like to hear. We know it all too well.
We demand the OSCE leadership be honest, not like the last time, about who has been using the organisation’s equipment left in Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR, and how. There is no politics here. These are facts and data. The organisation has to provide them to the public.
Under the current political and legal circumstances, it is impossible for the Special Monitoring Mission to perform its functions. The future activities of the mission have no consensus support of the member states and thus cannot be carried out. We call on the Secretariat and the organisation’s Polish Chairmanship-in-Office to promptly prepare a draft decision of the OSCE Permanent Council on the parameters for the closure of the Special Monitoring Mission and submit it for consideration by all the member states, which would make it possible to allocate funds for the removal of the remaining property and settle the financial obligations of the Mission.
Following the evacuation of the SMM’s international personnel from Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR, there are 75 armoured SUVs of the Mission left on the territory of Russia. Their further intended purpose is yet to be determined – whether they are to be sold or given to another OSCE field mission or, for example, donated to the civilian authorities of the DPR and the LPR.
Maria Zakharova: I would like to remind you that the incumbent Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif is the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the party that was in power when the agreement was signed in October 2015 between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on the North-South gas pipeline, later renamed Pakistan Stream. Also, the objective reality is that this project benefits both sides and Pakistan knows it very well. Pakistan’s energy industry will get a good boost, solving the problem of the country’s energy deficit. Russia will also benefit from this project. Therefore, we expect that the project will continue under the new government.
Maria Zakharova: This event made a mixed impression. On the one hand, the humanitarian aspect and importance of helping refugees in the EU and Moldova deserves notice.
On the other hand, the manner in which this noble idea was realised highlights the traditionally dual approach to what is very characteristic of Western countries, unfortunately: selfishness and materialism. The prevailing notion is that everyone is out for themselves. According to the European Commission itself, the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine is 50 percent higher than the number of Ukrainian refugees in EU countries (6.5 million against 4 million). However, in a complete reversal, over 80 percent of the funds raised will be distributed and spent within the EU (8.3 of 10.1 billion euros) and only a small portion will be donated to the Ukrainians in Ukraine (1.8 billion euros).
Moreover, as it has been revealed, this aid is not unconditional. The European Commission reported that more than half of this money, or 6 billion of 10.1 billion euros, was provided by the European Investment Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank (5 billion euros) and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (1 billion euros) as “loaned grants”. I do not know if there is such a thing as loaned grants (maybe there is) but loans are meant to be paid back. In the language of the Brussels bureaucracy, it means that essentially, the entire amount is a loan or a debt and Ukrainians in Ukraine will have to pay for their fellow citizens’ current stay in the EU from their taxes. This is what was eventually revealed following the donor event.
Essentially, while helping themselves with one hand, the EU countries are using the other hand to lead an economic war against Russia and disrupt global food supply chains. By doing this, they are pushing people in dozens of developing countries into starvation, prompting more humanitarian campaigns as a result.
We believe that this approach by the EU is detached from moral ideals. The question is, aren’t EU members afraid that Kiev will eventually insist on forgiving this debt to Brussels?
Most importantly, what has the EU bureaucracy done to better the lot of Donetsk and Lugansk residents who have been subjected to physical extermination, an economic and social blockade by the Kiev regime for eight years? Have they made any attempts to help? Not that we know of. There have been no attempts to collect humanitarian aid and send it there. The same is true about helping Syria. They are only helping those who are not affiliated with the government. Does that sound okay to you? A sovereign state was attacked by international terrorists, defended itself and it continues to be subject to occupation by the United States and other countries to this day. Only those selected by the West are worthy of help. Those affiliated with the government who are living and trying to survive on Syrian territory apparently do not need help in the eyes of the Western community. This is the approach Western countries have traditionally taken.
Maria Zakharova: We have seen a series of identical votes, not only at the UN, but also at other sites. There were these identical votes in recent weeks. All of them were against our country.
We are documenting the statements by Serbian politicians regarding the pressure that is being exerted on them, as well as statements by the Serbian side that Russia is their friend. Maybe we have different views on what friendship is. We always support our friends in difficult times. We always proceed from the fact that those who call us their friends have the same approach.
Representatives of many states striving to pursue their independent and balanced policy tell us (this has been said repeatedly by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov) that they suffer tremendous pressure from Western countries, primarily the United States, who want to “pit” the whole world against Russia and launch the mechanism of cancel culture. Accordingly, they “compromise.” We cannot understand this. We know there is pressure. But if we are talking about those who declare themselves our friends, then it is impossible to understand this.
We assume that those who have traditionally been our partners will consistently adhere to positions that reflect their true national interests and a genuine and friendly attitude towards us in their activities within international organisations and at various multilateral platforms. This is not about us encouraging them to go against their conscience by changing facts. No, Belgrade is well aware not only of the Russian position but also of the origins of this crisis. This has been repeatedly discussed at the highest level. They have the full information. Most importantly, they have lived through no less difficult historical periods, which are similar in many respects to what is now happening in Ukraine. After all, the sponsors of this long-lasting hell are the same. Here it is also important to understand that it is not just about supporting our country based on friendship or on fundamental grounds, but about upholding the truth.
Maria Zakharova: Russia and India maintain an intensive dialogue at the top and high levels, including on the situation in Ukraine. This issue has been more than once discussed during recent telephone calls between the leaders of the two countries, during which President Putin made clear to Prime Minister Modi the goals and objectives of the special military operation, briefed him on the course of the Russian-Ukrainian talks, and gave our principled assessments of Kiev’s aggressive actions against the civilians residing in the DPR and LPR.
We greatly appreciate (we say it publicly all the time) New Delhi’s independent position on Ukraine which is rooted in its willingness to assist the peace process and the need to ensure humanitarian access to the affected areas. We are grateful to our Indian friends for refusing to politicise the activities of international organisations or to join the illegitimate unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States, the EU and their satellites.
Maria Zakharova: We operate on the premise that the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalisation process is based on trilateral agreements signed by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on November 9, 2020 and January 11 and November 26, 2021. On April 9, President Vladimir Putin discussed with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan the entire range of issues related to their implementation. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed this issue with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan in Moscow on April 8, and during a telephone conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov. The ministers discussed delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, unblocking of the transport links in the South Caucasus and the conclusion of a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russia will continue to provide every possible form of help with an eye towards normalising relations between Baku and Yerevan. With regard to the role of the EU, Sergey Lavrov provided our assessments at a news conference following talks with Ararat Mirzoyan on April 8.
Maria Zakharova: I would like to remind you that even despite the developments in Ukraine and the fact that Kiev’s patrons, the United States and NATO countries, have crossed the red lines we outlined, Latin America remains an independent and separate track of our foreign policy.
We understand that Latin American countries are experiencing powerful pressure by the United States and the collective West. They are using a range of instruments that have no connection to diplomacy or other legal means, such as political clout, economic leverage and individual blackmail. While using pressure, the United States and the collective West disregard the socioeconomic consequences of their anti-Russia sanctions, including for their own regions. The two parts of America – South (Latin) America and North America – are a single organism and structure.
The adoption of illegal restrictive measures against Russia has disrupted the global supply chains and has sent food prices soaring. When fuel prices increased dramatically throughout the world, American politicians started blabbing like children that Russia is to blame for rising fuel prices. They are blaming this on Putin. No, it is not because of Putin that fuel prices in the United States and in the region as a whole are growing, no matter what Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and Jen Psaki might say. The blame goes to those who adopted the sanctions and did not think that they would boomerang back on them, or would backfire at their economy, if you want.
Cooperation between Russia and Latin America has always been free from any ideological restrictions, the influence of any short-term factors and has never been targeted against third countries.
We have always been open to mutually beneficial cooperation and the further development of constructive relations with the Latin American countries in all spheres, from politics to trade, cultural and military-technical areas. At the same time, we always point out that our military-technical cooperation is based strictly on bilateral agreements and on respect for national legislation and international law, is not aimed at changing the military-political balance of forces in the region and is not spearheaded against other countries.
Maria Zakharova: A comment and assessment of what High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell had to say following his visit to Ukraine were posted yesterday on the Foreign Ministry’s website. I recommend that you read it, as well as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to relevant questions. Transcripts and videos are available on our website.
I can only note once again that a European official saying that this war will be won on the battlefield goes to show that today’s European Union has conclusively renounced its lofty peace ideals that were laid down by the EU founding fathers. They wanted a new war in Europe to be “unthinkable and impossible.” Here comes Josep Borrell and ruins everything.
Before the entire world, the EU is morphing into a militarised and aggressive tool of external expansion and is reinforcing its methods of work, which are a far cry from the free market, with these militaristic aspirations. The hypocrisy of the European Union has no limits. It is using the Europe Peace Foundation to provide assistance to Kiev and to help Ukrainian neo-Nazis continue to kill people with impunity. The true values of the exceptionally “enlightened West” can be seen from the widespread use by the EU politicians of a Nazi slogan – I will not say it out loud – which was used in Nazi Germany as salute. The Brussels officials may be doing it without thinking, but they have ideologists and speech writers, as well as people who engage in fact-checking. Perhaps they could tell us what this salute is all about? Nancy Pelosi from the United States has found a way out and is now saying “Glory to Wuhan.” They, too, could have come up with something for themselves. The EU media space is being cleansed of alternative views, and unprecedented pressure is being exerted on Russians and Russian-speakers in the EU, all the way from individuals, media and public figures to businesses and humanitarian agencies. There is one and only one goal, which is for them to renounce today’s Russia, their historical homeland. They must sign some papers, literally and figuratively, or give some kind of a virtual oath of allegiance to the Western world. This smacks of Germany in the 1930s. Burning books in the squares, torchlight processions, salutes and refusal in written or oral form from national feelings, traditions and cultural roots in favour of the current liberal democratic community, which is what it was called back then. Same old.
The statements about the need for finding a political solution and supporting the talks have disappeared from the EU vocabulary. There is none of that, and it is clear why. A political decision will interfere with their main goal, which is to continue the proxy war to the last Ukrainian, which is actually the way it is. At first, they observed how Ukrainians block other Ukrainians’ accounts, railway routes, supply chains and money transfers. They watched for eight years one part of Ukraine deride the other part. At that time, we were not involved in the open phase of the conflict, but we helped with food, money, medications and humanitarian aid. The EU did not. They were satisfied with the state of affairs, where one portion of Ukraine was destroying the other. Now the “bonfire” has become even bigger. Apparently, their joy now is boundless.
This EU “diplomacy” runs counter to the interests of the European public, which strives for peace and stability, and wants to prevent manifestations of Nazism and discrimination on our common continent.
Maria Zakharova: Russian diplomatic missions are constantly monitoring and analysing statements by leaders of the host countries on important economic issues, including the said Presidential Executive Order of March 31 regarding the transition to payment in roubles for Russian gas exports to unfriendly countries.
Some countries that want mutually beneficial gas supplies from Russia to continue said they were willing to study Russia’s proposal, which came as a result of undermined confidence in the previous system of mutual settlements due to restrictive measures imposed by Western countries.
Some politicians responded negatively. One gets the impression that some European leaders, oblivious to what was going on, decided to demonstrate their anti-Russian sentiment. As a reminder, the new payment arrangements for gas do not entail changes to the payment currency specified in the contracts. The only requirement is to open currency and rouble accounts with an authorised Russian bank, which will be used to credit funds received from the buyer after the sale of currency at MICEX auctions to the seller’s accounts.
It is too early to comment on what purchasers of Russian gas will actually do and how they will make payments for gas. April deliveries will be paid for in late April or in May. So far, Russia has been fully complying with its contractual obligations, including gas transit through the territory of Ukraine. Apparently, Ukraine is urging everyone to drop everything, but is just fine with the fact that Russian gas is being piped through its territory.
I would also like to separately comment on what Foreign Minister of Italy Luigi Di Maio said about Russia’s request to open rouble accounts for Russian gas supplied to Italy. He said it was blackmail. At first I was surprised, but then I realised that the lira had long stopped being used as a national currency in Italy and they find it strange that there are countries out there that are still using national currencies.
MariaZakharova: I have already commented on our bilateral relations. Despite unprecedented sanctions pressure from the United States and its allies, our relations with India are making steady headway. On April 1, 2022, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited New Delhi, where he was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and he held detailed talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Energy and military-technical cooperation are traditional and key areas of the Russian-Indian specially privileged strategic partnership. Promoting this cooperation is the absolute priority for both countries. They are committed to their earlier obligations, including those assumed during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India on December 6, 2021.
There are many graphic examples of successful cooperation in these areas – the construction of the Kudankulan Nuclear Power Plant, the development of the Sakhalin-1 oil-and-gas field and the designing of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles. This is why we do not let our partners down and know how to be friends despite any difficulties. This is part of our history with any state.
MariaZakharova: This has already been recorded. Or are you asking what to do about the British, American and Ukrainian accusations? We know how to respond to them. The Foreign Ministry continues to record the various insinuations in the West and in Kiev regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals and chemical arms in Donbass by the DPR and LPR people’s militias, as well as by the Russian military. There was an exotic news item today – someone from the Pentagon, American law enforcement or Jen Psaki said that there was no information about this but it could exist (this is their favourite phrase).But they can use sprays like when they scatter demonstrators. This is some phantasmagoria.
The insinuations on this issue are absolutely groundless. We said we would release special statements, given that we regularly comment on this issue. Replying to your question, I can say that these allegations are completely unfounded.
At the same time, I would like to recall some recent information from the Russian Defence Ministry. It reports that Kiev held talks with the Turkish maker of BYKAR drones. They discussed how to upgrade its Bayraktar Akinci aerial combat vehicles with mechanisms for spraying substances from 20-litre containers. I dare assume this is not plain water. I doubt it is holy water, too.
This is particularly dubious when people who do not abhor anything are involved. This footage of atrocities did not just leak onto the net by accident. They are deriving pleasure from all that. This is a subject of their special pride. They find it completely normal to use means for more opportunities to inflict greater destruction – no matter if it is the enemy, civilians, certain territories or anything else.
According to experts, the use of these aerial vehicles, even if they are equipped with toxic chemicals in the said amounts, is not effective militarily. However, the delivery of biological agents by these vehicles is quite realistic and even in such small amounts they could do more damage to a population that has been subjected to genocide by Ukraine’s nationalists for over eight years. All the more so since the scale of the US’s bio-military activities in about 30 specialised laboratories in Ukraine under the Pentagon’s aegis is now common knowledge.
We would like to emphasise once again that any insinuations on Russia’s use of chemical weapons are groundless and are a reminder of similar accusations against the Syrian authorities and the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria amid the endless chemical provocations by the pseudo-humanitarian NGO, the White Helmets. The White Helmets have become more active again. They went to London for further instructions. There are reports that they have also intensified their activities in Ukraine. So, look for facts there. I think everything will soon become clear and will be buttressed by the facts.
Maria Zakharova: I would like to immediately remind our colleagues of the full quote from Lavrov's interview with the Rossiya 24 TV network: “Our special military operation is designed to put an end to the reckless course toward complete US dominance in the world. It is not only and not so much about Ukraine. Not everyone is willing to submit to their domination. Russia, of course, with its history and with its traditions, is one of those countries that will never be subservient.” It is now a test for the whole world. Who is a friend, who is an enemy and who is so-so. Who can resist, who has the potential to conduct an independent sovereign foreign policy, and who has traded, sold, surrendered, temporarily lost or forgotten about that sovereignty. Everything is possible. There are no common molds. This is a global test.
What was meant by this (when Sergey Lavrov spoke about it) is that behind the neo-Nazi forces that came to power as a result of the anti-constitutional coup d'état in 2014, all these years and before and after these events in 2014, the United States and NATO countries have been and still are behind it. Before was the nurturing, fostering and training of fighters who then proved themselves on the “Maidan” in the camps in the Baltic states and Poland, then carried out the anti-constitutional coup with these resources, who were well-trained armed fighters, knowing how to fight in the street, with financial and political support, etc. After the coup a different kind of process began, when the hidden forces that had been trained as militants gradually began to receive combat weapons and legitimise themselves within Ukraine and began joining the Ukrainian armed forces, infecting regular Ukrainian troops with this neo-Nazi bacillus as well. This is what needs to be remembered. On this basis, Ukraine was developed as an "anti-Russia," in a historical context, it was flooded with weapons and its territory was turned into a military beachhead against our country. And not only against our country. Thirty biological laboratories were aimed not only against our country. Who else are Ukraine’s neighbours? Biological weapons know no borders and have no limits.
Russia has always done everything to prevent a military confrontation with NATO. We hope that the West has enough common sense to avoid further escalation too. But you are right to ask the question. Escalation on the part of the West is under way. Arms deliveries, financial support, full political ideological and moral carte blanche, conscious suppression of these facts and propaganda are part of escalation.
Maria Zakharova: I already commented on this topic today. I don't have more information at the moment.
Maria Zakharova: I do not see anything “secret” about their actions. There is also a subterranean part, to be sure, which ordinary people might not see, but specialists certainly do.
I would say the “surface” part is quite enough to understand those two countries’ role. I already talked about this today. We have been talking about this all these years. Building a foothold for waging a hybrid war on our country, training militants under neo-nationalist cover, then incorporating them in official armed forces and legitimising them, creating dangerous bases for making biological weapons. Disguised as Ukrainian Health Ministry research, those labs in fact acted under the auspices of the Pentagon, and with the Pentagon’s money. This amounts to a real monster created on the territory of Ukraine. They practiced and tested all those methods on Ukrainian citizens living in its southeastern part bordering on Russia. Those countries’ role is obvious; it is not hidden. They have used Ukraine as a tool to destabilise the region, to conduct a hybrid conflict with our country.
Maria Zakharova: It will lead to a whole series of provocations, similar to those that took place in Syria. With a large number of staged productions, with actions that are all too familiar to the Western media community and understandable to the local people. Now they will blame Russia on a new level and at the same time use the methods they have perfected in Syria. There is no doubt about it. They have received instructions. The UK special services, so well versed in “poisons,” are instructing them, their specialists are based on the territory of Ukraine as well as abroad. The White Helmets are back in the game. They are financed by the State Department, the UK and NATO agencies. This is the purpose they were created and given hands-on training in Syria. This is their new project. The methods are the same. They are familiar to the media landscape in the West. They do not need to be promoted. They have had their Oscar nomination, won a number of prestigious international awards, and emerged as a transnational company. And all along the way they have been providing cover for the unseemly and illegal activities of Western intelligence services, primarily American and British ones.
Maria Zakharova: Comments on Joseph Biden’s statements should come from the White House Press Office. As a rule, it issues two or three denials after his statements. Let’s wait till they refute once again what he said.
I respect the democratic institutions that allow the American people to make their choice by voting. We view this choice as legitimate and respect the opinion of the American people and recognise US President Joseph Biden. But, frankly speaking, not all of his statements are adequate. This is proved by the work of his administration that continuously corrects what he said, disavows his words or gives additional explanations. But the most interesting thing is that even the wording of his statements is prompted by some people who write theses for him. Did he read them correctly? Did he pronounce all the words and letters? I cannot tell you. It is impossible to take seriously such statements that are regularly made to express an official position of the state because the White House Press Office continuously disavows what was said by its own President. I will not comment on these words and statements.
Speaking about the US administration’s position in general, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just the current position or accusations against Russia. Let’s look at it in retrospect. When was it different? Was there ever a time when the US administration or Downing Street did not accuse us of anything? Can you recall a year when our country wasn’t blamed for some thing or other? There was not a single year like that in the past 15 years. We were always guilty of something but there is one small nuance. Their statements were not followed by any proof.
Today’s accusations are being made against the backdrop of an eight-year-long silence kept by the administrations of the current and former US presidents, Downing Street and Brussels as regards the real genocide that was perpetrated in Donbass. If US President Joseph Biden, his predecessor Donald Trump, presidents of other NATO countries, Prime Minister of Britain Boris Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May had made at least one statement to reproach the Kiev regime and urge it to stop shelling civilians, I would believe in their sincerity now. But as of today, you cannot show me even a single statement from Washington, London or Brussels whereby they would strongly demand that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky or his predecessor Petr Poroshenko stop shelling civilian facilities, killing children for eight years, perpetrating genocide and blocking the delivery of food, medications and other humanitarian aid to the people of Donbass. Not a single statement was made to this effect. But there were victims, thousands of them. So those who are making such accusations are simply hypocritical. If they fail to see the murder of civilians over eight years, there is no point in trusting their assessments.
Maria Zakharova: When statements implicating someone in a crime are made, evidence must be provided.
The Kiev regime, Washington, London and several other Western capitals have accused Russia of the events in Bucha. My question for them is: Where is the evidence? They have only provided photo and video materials, which we have disavowed. We said that these photographs and videos were either made after the Russian troops had pulled out of the town or are not trustworthy. In other words, proof of a crime must be provided by those who have made the allegation.
Second, we provided a lot of materials to support our stand. Take the interview and the public statement made by Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedorchuk immediately after the Russian troops’ withdrawal. He said that there were no Russian troops in the town and that life was returning to normal. He did not say a single word about the crimes we were later accused of. This doesn’t make any sense for any normal person, because nobody was holding Mayor Fedorchuk at gunpoint when he said in front of the camera that life was returning to normal; he made this statement freely, was cheerful and untroubled, which means that he had not seen any tragedy. The tragedy only happened several days later, when the Ukrainian militants entered the town.
There is one more thing. The residents of Bucha could use their mobile phones freely when the Soviet troops were in the town. They had access to the internet and hence a connection to the world outside. They could take photographs, phone media outlets and send their photographs to them, send phone messages, and so on. They did nothing of the kind. You know why? Because there were no facts they needed to report in their phone calls and messages. These “facts” only appeared when the Ukrainian military entered the town. We said that it was a staged event, and that it was staged according to the scenarios used in Syria for years to stage chemical attacks. One of the most outrageous events staged before that in Europe was in Srebrenica. It was passed off in one way, but the evidence that came to light later proved that things were not at all as the Western countries and their leaders presented them.
In short, the evidence presented by the West fell to pieces. And there is no other. Certain experts will be dispatched to Bucha to investigate the tragedy. We hope they will muster the courage to conduct a really depoliticised investigation. But I doubt it, and here is why.
May I ask a rhetorical question which, I am sure, you will not answer: What about the Skripals? You work for a British network. Have you seen them at least once? Have you talked with them? So many years have passed. We were accused of poisoning them. Only once did the daughter of Sergey Skripal give a video interview to an unidentified network, most probably the British secret services. Since then, they have not answered any questions from journalists, the public or investigators. The Skripals have not said anything that could be presented to the world. Nobody can say where they are, how they are doing and what happened to them back then. Scotland Yard has taken over the investigation. How much longer will it take Scotland Yard and all other British security services to make up their minds? Nevertheless, restrictive measures were adopted against Russia, accusations were voiced, and statements were made by the UK Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. This provocative behaviour lies at the basis of Western policy.
Maria Zakharova: You are right, the Immortal Regiment procession has become a tradition in the context of Victory Day celebrations. It is held in cities across Russia. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were also online formats. The campaign is here to stay in this country. Officials responsible for this event should announce in what form and when the procession will take place.
The organisers from public organisations are reflecting on whether it should be held live or online. Your question ought to be addressed to them, but we will certainly be involved in the process. We will determine the format. If it is decided to hold a live Immortal Regiment procession in Moscow and some foreign guests and journalists express a wish to join it, we will as always provide assistance. But first of all, the organisers should decide on the format.
Russian embassies abroad are studying this matter based on the entire gamut of factors. We will certainly inform you when the decision is taken.
As for invitations for Victory Day celebrations to foreign states, I would like to remind you once again that this traditionally falls within the purview of the Presidential Executive Office. We stay tuned to news and expect the relevant information to be published.
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