After the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, the United States and its NATO allies began to actively “re-educate” the former Soviet republics, trying to build democracy there on Western patterns, regardless of the national interests of those states.
To strengthen its own dominance, the “collective West” has been using its concept of “rules-based order,” which comes in place of universally agreed upon international legal mechanisms and allows its proponents to exert significant influence on the decision-making process.
Western policy in the post-Soviet space has paid special attention to Ukraine as the most developed of the republics with powerful industrial, agricultural and scientific potential. Her economy was to be enfeebled and made to work for Western capital.
In the early 2000s, the “collective West” resorted to more resolute measures vis-a-vis Ukraine. It inspired the “Orange Revolution” of 2004, which resulted in the coming to power in Kyiv of forces bent on distancing Ukraine from Russia and integrating the country into Euro-Atlantic structures. Gross interference of the West in the internal affairs of the country provoked an acute and permanent political crisis, leading Ukraine to the tragic events of late 2013 – early 2014.
The United States and its allies acted in a brutal and cynical manner in full accordance with the principle “those who are not with us are against us”, forcing Kyiv to choose with whom it should be – with them or with Russia.
In November 2013, it was Ukrainian President V Yanukovych’s decision to postpone the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU that served first as the reason for the “Euromaidan”. The latter, in its turn, led to the armed coup d’état in Kyiv in February 2014, inspired and financed by the West. As a result, nationalist radical forces came to power in Ukraine.
On 22 February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) adopted a resolution on Mr V Yanukovych’s being aloof from performing the duties of the President of Ukraine, thereby usurping power (although the legitimate president continued to stay on the territory of Ukraine and did not make statements about his resignation). The launching of a “government of the winners” was announced.
Representatives of the United States and the EU produced no official statements urging compliance with the agreement concluded between President Yanukovych and the opposition with the mediation of Germany, France and Poland on 21 February 2014. The West hastened to acknowledge the “change of power” in Ukraine and began to encourage the putschists in their anti-Russian policies.
So-called “mediation” efforts of Westerners led, in fact, to a sharp polarization of the Ukrainian society, which created preconditions for an armed civil conflict. The very first legislative steps of the “winners of the Maidan” – in particular, an attempt to repeal the law on regional languages – were received with alarm in the Russian-speaking southeast of Ukraine (Donbass), where the spontaneous formation of militia forces began. Kyiv immediately accused all residents of that region of “treason” and “terrorism”, sending the regular army and neo-Nazi punitive battalions to suppress the protests.
The spread of civil war in Ukraine was avoided. With the active mediation of Russia, the “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements” was signed on 12 February 2015 by the parties in conflict and approved by the UN Security Council Resolution 2202. It has become the uncontested legal basis for internal Ukrainian settlement. However, Kyiv sabotaged its implementation, and the West turned a blind eye to this. Later, in 2022, the former President of Ukraine P Poroshenko admitted that the Minsk agreements were designed to give Kyiv time to strengthen the Armed Forces of Ukraine and not to stop the fighting. And in December 2022, this was confirmed by the former German Chancellor A Merkel and ex-President of France F Hollande.
The coming to power in Ukraine of President V Zelensky in 2019 did not bring about positive changes. Under the influence of various internal and external political forces, he continued to sabotage the Minsk agreements.
The armed forces of Ukraine never stopped shelling Donbass. An inhumane socioeconomic and transport blockade was introduced against its population to put the region on the brink of survival.
Under the supervision and with direct participation of advisers from NATO member-states, Ukraine has been rapidly turning herself into “anti-Russia” since 2014.
The most important element of the Western anti-Russian line in Ukraine and throughout the Black Sea and Eastern European region has been her accelerated militarization – the transformation of this country into a NATO springboard against Russia. In recent years, the United States and its allies have accelerated the military reconstruction of the territory of Ukraine, beefing it up with weapons and equipment, staging large-scale military exercises near Russian borders, and training Ukrainian military personnel. For a long time, American biological laboratories operated secretly in Ukraine. At those facilities, military biological programmes were implemented in stark violation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (1972).
At the end of 2021, Russia prepared and, in December of that same year, sent proposals to Western partners to provide her with legal security guarantees, including the non-expansion of NATO to the East. However, those proposals were ignored.
Russia and Ukraine have common historical roots. Ukraine is an integral part of Russian history, the cradle of our Orthodox faith and spirituality, and a zone of Russian national interests. Moscow cannot let a threat to Russia and our population come from Ukrainian territory. Russia has also repeatedly warned that a further escalation of the situation in Donbass could have the most serious consequences for regional and pan-European stability.
The inculcation of Russophobia, falsification of history and revival of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, as well as the eight-year neglect by the Kyiv regime of Donbass civilians’ right to live, could no longer remain unchecked.
Moreover, a serious concern was caused by Kyiv’s bid to repossess nuclear weapons, publicly voiced by V Zelensky in February 2022 at the Munich Security Conference, which, if unstopped, would entail real risks not only for Russia but for international security in general.
Since the beginning of 2022, there was observed an escalation of the situation along the entire line of contact in Donbass. The population of the two republics of that region faced a real threat of direct physical elimination by the Kyiv authorities. As was later confirmed, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were preparing to seize Donbass by force in March 2022.
Russia was, thus, left with no other option but to recognize the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic (on 21 February 2022) and to launch a special military operation on 24 February 2022 to protect Donbass, demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, eliminate threats to the security of Russia emanating from the neighbouring territory. These goals and objectives will be achieved in full.
Russia did not “attack” Ukraine, as claimed by Western propaganda, but acted in compliance with Article 51, Part 7 of the UN Charter, as well as the Russian legislation and at the request of the Donbass republics, subjected to shelling and blockade for eight years by the Kyiv regime with the connivance of the West.
The collective West actively continues to arm the Kyiv regime. In addition, the United States and its NATO allies are providing military training for Ukrainian personnel to use modern weapons, including tanks, air defence systems and even aircraft.
The actions of the countries of the “collective West” and the Kyiv regime spotlight the global nature of the confrontation in Ukraine. In reality, Russia is not dealing with Kyiv but rather with a NATO-Ukrainian military-industrial axis. Ukraine is just a tool in the hands of the United States and NATO allies, with a long-term goal to “triumph over Russia on the battlefield” at any cost and dismantle the security architecture in the so-called post-Soviet space and Eurasia as a whole.
(The views in the article are only those of the Russian Embassy in Myanmar).
