Mr Chairperson,
Ten years ago, in April 2014, the regime that came to power after the unconstitutional coup d’état in Kyiv unleashed a war against the population of south-eastern Ukraine. Those dubbed ‘separatists’ and ‘terrorists’ by the putschists literally tried to stop the tanks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) with their bare hands. Soon the new authorities in Kyiv, which the West continues to call nothing less than ‘democratic’, began to simply suppress citizens who disagreed with their policies: bombing residential buildings in Snezhnoye and shelling neighbourhoods in Slovyansk with multiple rocket launchers. Over the years of failed negotiations in the Normandy format, the Western partners, in violation of the Minsk agreements, have well supplied Kyiv with weapons and military equipment for a full-scale offensive in Donbas. In February 2022, the Kiev regime led by the so-called peace president V. Zelensky decided to finally close this issue.
The decision of the Russian Federation to conduct a special military operation to protect the population of Donbass, implemented in full compliance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, thwarted the plans of the Ukrainian-Western ‘conglomerate’. If up until the summer of 2023, NATO political circles were still talking about the intention to ‘inflict a strategic defeat on Russia’, then after the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and the establishment of Russian control over the largest fortification of the AFU in Avdeevka, they started talking about a ‘stalemate on the front’ for Kiev. This was not part of the plans of the EU and NATO states, which had put their economies, the well-being of their citizens and their international reputation on the line in the confrontation with Russia. In the words of American entrepreneur I. Musk, the West now has ‘no strategy for getting out of the conflict, it’s just an endless war, with children dying in trenches from artillery and machine-gun fire or from snipers’ bullets in minefields.’
Not surprisingly, under these circumstances, irresponsible statements about an eventual conflict between NATO states and Russia, with the risk of a direct clash between the nuclear powers, began to multiply from European capitals. As early as October 2023, British Defence Secretary G. Shapps stated that British troops would be stationed in Ukraine. And in March of this year, former Ukrainian ambassador to London V.Prystayko disclosed information about plans to form a ‘coalition of the willing’ to bring NATO soldiers to the territory of this country since 2022. Such statements, the number of which continues to multiply, should not be treated with disdain.
Against this background, it is not surprising that the White House is openly betting not on a mythical victory for the controlled regime in Kyiv, but on the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces will hold out at least until the November vote without ruining the image of President Biden. The approval by the U.S. Congress of the bill on $61 billion in financial aid is also primarily aimed at serving the interests of the U.S. ruling elites, who make no secret of the fact that the allocated funds will be received primarily by the U.S. military-industrial complex. Overseas, they are once again acting under the motto ‘war to the last Ukrainian’ or ‘everything for the confrontation with Russia’.
According to reports, the condition for new supplies of NATO weapons to Kiev was the adoption of a strict law on mobilisation in Ukraine to make up for the colossal losses of the AFU, which since the beginning of the special military operation have amounted to almost half a million people. Here it is appropriate to recall the statement by Alliance Secretary General J. Stoltenberg, according to which ‘Ukraine should provide itself with soldiers, while NATO allies provide it with funds’. The statement by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, J. Borrell, that ‘the West is not fighting for Ukraine, but against Russia’ was also self-disclosing. The criminal authorities in Kyiv themselves appear to agree with this state of affairs. In particular, the leader of the regime openly stated in an interview with NBC that he serves someone else’s interests in this conflict: ‘The U.S. Army will no longer have to fight to defend NATO countries. Ukrainians are doing that. The civilised world is just providing ammunition. And I think this is a good solution.’ But are Ukrainian citizens ready to defend Western interests on the battlefield?
On the screens, colleagues can see violent methods of recruiting men into the ranks of the AFU. Military enlistment offices do not treat them with ceremony and, in violation of all norms and laws, kidnap them right on the street as wanted criminals and send them straight to the front without any special training, where the only way to survive is to surrender to the Russian military. No wonder that according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology only 8% of respondents are ready to voluntarily join the AFU. Moreover, even the Ukrainian president’s office openly confirms that the morale of Ukrainian troops and citizens is depressed by losses on the battlefield. All this is illustrated by a quote attributed to an American statesman: ‘You can fool a part of the people all the time and the whole people some of the time, but you can’t fool the whole people all the time.’
Nevertheless, on April 16, V. Zelensky signed an inhumane law on tightening mobilization, which simply destroys the rights of citizens of Ukraine. In the law, which opens the way even for conscription of persons with disabilities, Ukrainians face fines for non-compliance, up to the deprivation of the right to drive a car and forcibly drive violators to territorial recruitment centers. Along the way, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine banned all consular actions abroad against men of military age, except for processing documents for returning to the country where they face mobilization. Already, leading international publications, including The New York Times and Deutsche Welle, are sounding the alarm, warning of the catastrophic consequences of lowering the military age in Ukraine.
Given that the Kiev regime continues to “prepare the ground” for the mobilization of women as part of the introduction of the concept of “gender equality” among military personnel, it is scary to imagine how the capture of the female population of Ukraine will take place to be sent to the front. This is called “finishing off the citizens of Ukraine in an American way.” It would be interesting to hear from colleagues at the FSB how such methods, going hand in hand with gross violations of human rights, fit into the logic, goals and objectives of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace and Security” promoted by them at the FSB.
It is also clear to us that the new package of American military assistance will only spur the Kiev regime to new terrorist acts against the civilian population of the Russian Federation. To justify attacks on residents and peaceful infrastructure, Kiev claims that it is allegedly hitting military targets. Often, as in Belgorod, the Armed Forces of Ukraine use indiscriminate cluster munitions for shelling, deliberately targeting residential areas. Since the beginning of 2024, more than a thousand civilians have suffered from attacks by Ukrainian militants. However, NATO and the EU simply “turn a blind eye” to this. Apparently, because it is there that the directions of the AFU strikes are coordinated, providing intelligence data.
In particular, we have not heard the reaction of the Western “civilized community” to the murder in the line of duty of the Russian correspondent of the Izvestia News Center S.Eremin as a result of an attack from an AFU UAV. Or the attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Gorlovka hospital using American high-precision MLRS HIMARS rockets, which injured 13 civilians and damaged a blood transfusion station. Or maybe Western delegations consider the attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on rescuers, tracking down firefighters and medical teams from drones to be in accordance with international humanitarian law, which has become a common terrorist practice of Ukrainian neo-Nazis? It has already reached the point that the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) V.Malyuk publicly declares what exactly the Ukrainian neo–Nazis are doing in this structure – the murders of people on the territory of our country, including the politician I.Kivu, journalists D.Dugina and V. Tatarsky, as well as attempts on the writer Z.Prilepin and the head of the Interior Ministry of the LPR I.The Cornet. So where is the reaction of the international community to these acts of Ukrainian terrorism?
Russian courts, based on evidence collected by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, continue to sentence Ukrainian militants who have committed serious crimes. We also conveyed to Kiev a demand under the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings for the immediate arrest and extradition of all persons involved in a number of terrorist attacks on Russian territory, including the head of the SBU. In addition, the Russian side intends to send evidence of crimes committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalists in Donbas to the International Court of Justice.
In this regard, we would like to focus on the following. The European Union continues to make every effort to find worldwide suppliers of weapons to Ukraine, especially heavy Soviet and Russian-style weapons, as well as artillery shells. All States receiving such requests from Europeans should not only remember the need to strictly comply with the provisions of the end-user certificate, but also be aware that any weapons and ammunition sold to EU and NATO countries can also be used against the civilian population of the Russian Federation. And given the overwhelming corruption of the Kiev regime, it is possible that all this “iron” may return to the supplier countries themselves, but already into the hands of local militants and terrorists.
Mr. Chairman,
A radical change is taking place in the zone of the special military operation, and neither new packages of Western military assistance, nor new “meat assaults” and counterattacks by the Kiev regime will be able to change this trend. The Russian army continues to squeeze out the enemy from the occupied borders. Only recently, the settlements of Pervomaiske, Bogdanovka and Novomikhailovka in the DPR have withdrawn under the control of Russian troops. There is an expansion of the control zone in Berdych and Georgievka, as well as the alignment of the front line in the areas of the Svatovo-Kremen direction in the LPR for the further liberation of the territory of the republic. On the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, robotic complexes, advanced UAVs and advanced weapons systems are being developed in order to ensure a tough response to threats to the national security of our country generated by the United States and its allies.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to increase the intensity of group strikes with high-precision long-range weapons against logistics centers, military-industrial complex enterprises and storage bases of Western weapons in Ukraine. The Russian air and missile defense forces are working rhythmically, which have destroyed more than 22 thousand UAVs and about 6 thousand rockets since the beginning of hostilities, including over 3.5 thousand American HIMARS and 360 Czech Vampires, as well as about 2 thousand other air targets. Purposeful work is being carried out to eliminate armored combat vehicles, air defense systems and NATO-style tanks, which our fighters undertake with special enthusiasm. So, recently, at the headquarters of the Moscow Military District, a solemn ceremony of awarding awards to the soldiers of the SVO for the damaged Leopard-2 tanks took place. According to the estimates of the American edition of The New York Times and the Spanish newspaper El Pais, they were simply useless on the battlefield. We have no doubt that similar reports will soon follow on other Western weapons systems.
Once again, we strongly declare that further involvement of Washington and its allies in the Ukrainian conflict will receive an unconditional decisive rebuff. In particular, this concerns plans for the banal theft of frozen Russian assets, to which the Congress gives the “green light” to the administration of J.Biden. The United States will have to answer for this decision. We will take retaliatory measures in accordance with our interests without time limit. One way or another, any feverish attempts by the Western “conglomerate” aimed at saving the neo-Nazi regime of V. Zelensky will be doomed to failure. The goals and objectives of the special military operation will be fully achieved.
Thank you for your attention.
