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From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Russian Federation, has said its goal of commencing a special military operation in Ukraine was to protect its people who, for the past eight years, have been suffering humiliation and genocide at the hands of the Kiev regime that came to power through an anti-constitutional coup in 2014.
The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Nigeria, in a statement issued in Abuja, said Russia’s goal was also to bring the current officials of the puppet regime to justice for crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation, committed throughout those years and to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine.
“Utmost efforts have been made for eight years to urge the Kiev authorities to stop the punitive operation against their own people, to settle the conflict in Donbass by peaceful, political and diplomatic means, to establish a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk as per the Minsk Agreement, which states that the Ukrainian authorities are to launch a dialogue on the modalities of holding local elections and the future status of these regions in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. The Ukrainian authorities were openly violating their own constitution and legislation and adopted discriminatory laws on language, education and native peoples,” the statement read.
On the role of the United States and the European Union (EU) in the crisis, the Embassy of the Russian Federation further said the United States and western countries rolled out a massive anti-Russia disinformation campaign.
“They pumped Ukraine full of weaponry, sent their military advisers and held large-scale military exercises. The militarisation of the country’s territory was on the rise.
“For many years, the European Union, under the mask of a peacemaker, lavishly financed the Kiev regime, which came to power in an anti-constitutional coup. The EU stood in silence while the population of Donbass was being exterminated and the Russian language was being strangled in Ukraine. It disregarded our endless calls to take notice of the predominance of Nazis in the Ukrainian authorities, the socioeconomic blockade and murder of innocent civilians in the southeast of Ukraine. The EU conditioned its future relations with Russia on the implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures but has done everything to encourage Kiev to break agreements. At the same time, the EU gave Kiev money and visa-free travel and extended anti-Russia sanctions under far-fetched pretexts. The EU took part in Kiev’s performances, which put in question the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.
“The EU has shown the real worth of the rule of law in Europe, having disregarded all the eight criteria of its own “common position” of December 8, 2008 defining common rules governing control of exports of military technology and equipment (2008/944/CFSP), which explicitly prohibits the export of weapons and military equipment from the EU…,” the Russian Federation also said.
In the area of human rights, Russia also said the radical nationalists and neo-Nazis who seized power in Kiev, following a government coup, supported by the West, unleashed terror on the country.
“The very recollection of the tragedy in Odessa, on May 2, 2014, terrifies. Peaceful demonstrators were burnt alive in the trade union building. The perpetrators of this horrendous act are well known. In fact, they posed for cameras, but have yet to be punished.
“The mass graves discovered in Donbass serve as irrefutable evidence of the criminal consequences from the massive shelling of civilian infrastructure. Forensics experts identified most victims as women and elderly people. Western politicians and mass-media have been ignoring the multiple facts relating to these outrageous violations of the most basic of human rights, the right to life. The attempts to draw the HRC’s attention to the violence and atrocities perpetrated over the past 8 years have been met with indifference.
“For all these years, the Ukrainian regime has been carrying out an aggressive policy to get rid of everything Russian and promote forced assimilation. People who identify as Russian and would like to preserve their identity, language, and culture, are told in all clarity that they are not welcome in Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky referred to them as “species” and suggested that they go to Russia. He initiated a law on indigenous people that forced the Russians, who have been living on these lands for centuries, leave them. This is quite reminiscent of the laws Nazi Germany used to have. The Russian language is being purged from schools and universities, from the public space and even from everyday life. Quite frequently, people who speak their native language can pay for it not only with the loss of their jobs and health, but with their lives,” Russia stated.
