Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s answer to a media question regarding the latest anti-Russia statement by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell

Question: In a statement distributed by Brussels, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell strongly condemned the alleged killings of Ukrainian POWs by Russian servicemen. What can you say about this?

Maria Zakharova: In the absence of success by the Ukrainian forces on the front lines, EU officials, and specifically the outgoing head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in his latest anti-Russia remark, are fueling pro-Ukraine hysteria and fabricating even more falsehoods in order to vilify Russia.

Josep Borrell once again made a baseless accusation against our country, alleging the killings of captured Ukrainian militants. The POWs in question were neo-Nazis who had carried out a barbaric attack on civilians in the Kursk Region, kidnapped and killed civilians, took some of them to a concentration camp, tortured them, and engaged in terror and looting on Russian territory.

This European official’s lies align with the fake stories promoted by Western and Ukrainian officials, such as the “Bucha massacre,” the “20,000 abducted Ukrainian children,” and the “atrocities committed by Russian soldiers,” to name a few. Neither Kiev nor its Western patrons have ever provided evidence for any of these claims. Neither list of the people who died in Bucha, nor the names of the “abducted children” has so far been provided. As a reminder, former Ukrainian Ombudsman for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova, who took particular relish in discussing sexual crimes allegedly committed by the Russian troops, eventually admitted that she made these stories up to evoke sympathy from the international community.

At the same time, there are numerous open-source testimonies of the crimes, including against captured Russian servicemen, committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis and foreign mercenaries who are fighting for the Kiev regime. Several such reports have even been published in Western media. In social media, Zelensky’s militants not only don’t hide the atrocities committed by them, but revel in them.

Just like most NATO leaders, Josep Borrell prefers to ignore the crimes committed by his Ukrainian underlings. Moreover, the head of EU diplomacy has admitted on multiple occasions that he had the power to stop the fighting and save lives literally two weeks into the conflict. But the EU did not have and does not have plans to do so in pursuit of its unattainable goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on our country at the cost of the lives of the Ukrainians, who have become mere pawns in the hands of the Russophobic Western elites.

However, they will not succeed. They cannot defeat Russia. This fact has become increasingly clear to all right-minded people. And the sooner the EU and, more broadly, the West realise this, the better it will be for everyone.