#Index #Russian #embassy #Budapest #issued #war #notice
From time to time, the Russian embassy in Budapest has issued statements about the war or its causes.
Two announcements have now been published, which were sent to our editorial office by e-mail. One of them On the role of Western countries in the conflict in Ukraine is entitled, while the other is about “the situation around Ukraine” in general.
Both announcements basically repeat the Russian position already presented in recent years. The first statement begins with the fact that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and its NATO allies began to gain influence in the former Soviet member republics and, according to them, tried to transform them “under the guise of ‘democratization’, without any regard for national interests” according to their goals.
They continue to claim that Russia did not invade Ukraine
According to their point of view, Ukraine has always received special attention, and according to them, this was the result of the Ukrainian revolutions of 2004 and 2013-14. In their opinion, further escalation could have been avoided after 2014 if the parties had complied with the agreement reached on February 21, 2014, between President Viktor Yanukovych and Ukrainian opposition politicians, which served to settle the domestic political crisis, and the unity government provided for in the agreement would be established. In the statement, they wrote that all of this was prevented by Western politicians, who advocated regime change instead of consolidation, and, according to them, this is why the conflict in eastern Ukraine later turned sour.
They also pointed out that Zelenskyi’s coming to power in 2019 did not improve the situation either, and in fact, according to them, he also contributed to the “undermining” of the Minsk agreements, and that the process of “transforming Ukraine into an anti-Russian country” with the help of the West continued.
It was then claimed in the statement that
Russia did not “invade” Ukraine, as is actively propagated by the West,
rather, he launched a “special operation”, according to them, in accordance with Article 51 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and at the request of the Donbas republics (the fact that they did not attack Ukraine was already stated by the Russian Foreign Ministry in March 2022).
Finally, they also mentioned that the NATO states also want to hand over F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which they believe would result in an escalation. As they wrote, these aircraft are capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons and therefore, according to them, “would entail the risk of a direct armed conflict between NATO and Russia” if they were handed over to the Ukrainians.
According to them, this is why there is no peace
In the other statement – which also echoes previously voiced elements of the Russian narrative – they wrote that, in their opinion, the peace formula developed by the Westerners and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky only incites “further hostilities”, hinders the peace process, and is no more than an ultimatum.
“The original foundations of Ukraine’s sovereignty – its neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status – must be strengthened,” the statement said. (It is another matter that in reality these had nothing to do with the independence of Ukraine: for example, there was no mention of such things in the country’s declaration of independence in 1991. In fact, nuclear weapons were renounced only three years later, in the framework of the Budapest memorandum.)
They also added that, according to them, the independence of the Crimea, the Donbass and the territories of southeastern Ukraine was solely the result of “the 2014 coup d’état”. Finally, they wrote that in their opinion the territorial integrity of Ukraine was undermined by the supporters of the Kyiv regime who in February 2014 “overthrew the legitimate president of Ukraine”, i.e. Viktor Yanukovych, who left for Russia at the time.
We will also follow the developments of the Russian-Ukrainian war minute by minute on Wednesday – in this article.
(Cover photo: A German-made Leopard 2A5 tank at the front in the Donetsk region on November 21, 2023. Photo: Anatolii Stepanov / AFP)
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