Russia’s special operation in Ukraine is aimed at putting an end to the unscrupulous course of total US domination in the world, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
“Our special military operation is aimed at putting an end to the reckless expansion and reckless course of the total domination of the US and, under it, of the rest of the Western countries in the international arena. A domination that is built in flagrant violation of international law, according to rules that they only now repeat and develop in an ad hoc manner,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russia 24.
The Russian foreign minister, moreover, condemned the statements of the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell that there is no alternative to a military solution of the conflict in Ukraine.
“When the head of diplomacy of a country, or of an organization, such as Josep Borrell in this case, who represents the EU diplomacy, says that a particular conflict can be solved only by military means, it means that it is a cumulative personal reaction, either a slip of the tongue or he made public a thing that nobody entrusted him to disclose. But this is an unprecedented statement, of course,” the Russian Foreign Minister added.
For Lavrov, what Borrell said “in this aggressive and unprecedented context”, in fact, “substantially changes the rules of the game”, since until now the European Union has never “acted as a military organization”.
On April 9, the head of European diplomacy, commenting on his recent visit to Kiev, tweeted that “this war will be won on the battlefield” and promised new shipments of armaments to Ukraine.
“This is an utterly serious change, even in the policy that the EU and the West under US leadership – there is no doubt about it – began to pursue after the start of our special military operation. A policy that reflects anger, in some ways even frenzy, and which, of course, is determined not only by [the situation in] Ukraine, but by Ukraine being transformed into a foothold for the final suppression of Russia”, the head of Russian diplomacy stressed.
Negotiations with Ukraine
Moscow sees no reason why Russia should not continue negotiations with Ukraine, Lavrov added.
“I see no reason why we cannot continue them, although the Ukrainian side changes its opinion in the opposite direction every time, rejecting what it itself has just proposed. But we are patient and persistent,” he noted.
The Russian foreign minister specified that Moscow does not plan to suspend hostilities in Ukraine during the negotiations.
“If during the first round (…) when the Ukrainian side proposed and we agreed to maintain a contact of the delegations, and if then the president [Vladimir Putin] gave the order to make a pause in hostilities and in the special military operation, then when we were convinced that the Ukrainians would not reciprocate, it was decided that for the following rounds of negotiations there would be no pause until a final agreement is reached,” Lavrov stressed.
Lavrov stressed that such a policy is determined not only by what is happening in Ukraine, but by the fact that from that country “they started to make a base to finally crush Russia” and subordinate it to the global system being built by the West.
New Kiev’s new set-ups
Also, the Russian minister emphasized that Ukrainian troops with the support of foreign services can organize new assemblies, Lavrov maintained.
“More staging will take place, and in recent days, on April 9, and on Sunday our Defense Ministry and the center of defense management presented intelligence data revealing the plans of the Ukrainian regime with the direct support of the special services of the West to organize new staging with chemicals, and others with stagings of mass executions and mass graves,” he told the Rossiya 24 channel.
In this context, he called the stagings” in the city of Bucha and at the Kramatorsk railway station “outrageous”.
Since the beginning of April, the Ukrainian authorities and several international media have broadcast numerous camera and satellite images showing dead bodies of civilians, some of them handcuffed, in the streets of Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kiev which was under the control of Russian troops who left it on March 30.
According to the mayor of the city, Anatoli Fedoruk, a total of 320 people died during the presence of Russian forces, 163 of whom were identified.
The Russian Defense Ministry called the published photos and videos “a new montage”, assuring that during the stay of the Russian military in the city “no local civilians suffered any aggression”.
The Kremlin categorically rejected Russian military involvement in civilian killings in Bucha and insisted that there should be an international debate on the matter, but at the same time was skeptical about the possibility of a “truly impartial investigation”.
Days later, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) territorial defense headquarters claimed that Ukrainian troops fired Tochka-U missiles at the town of Kramatorsk, located north of Donetsk, and that fragments of these projectiles fell in the vicinity of the railway station.
The attack resulted in at least 50 dead and 87, including five children.
The Russian Defense Ministry assured that it had nothing to do with the attack on Kramatorsk and confirmed that Tochka-U missiles are only used by Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky also claimed that the attack was carried out with Tochka-U missiles, but blamed the shelling on Russian troops, saying that the target of the aggression was “thousands of civilian Ukrainians waiting for evacuation”. Countries supporting Kiev, such as the US, Canada, members of the European Union and others, have joined Zelenski’s version and accused Russia of war crimes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in the early hours of February 24 the launching of a “special military operation” in Ukraine claiming that the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, previously recognized by Moscow as sovereign states, need help in the face of “genocide” by Kiev.
One of the fundamental objectives of this operation, according to Putin, is “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the military strikes are not directed against civilian facilities, but are aimed at disabling the war infrastructure.
Ukraine broke off diplomatic relations with Russia, imposed martial law throughout the national territory, as well as a curfew in Kiev and other cities, decreed a general mobilization and urged the international community to activate “all possible sanctions” against the Russian leader.
Numerous countries, with exceptions such as China, condemned in strong terms Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and activated several batteries of individual and sectoral sanctions.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 