Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
that attacked Ukraine without justification
A person who has more knowledge than any TD poster on the subject.

A question and answer from the Russian Foreign Minister on the very topic.

21 July 2022 19:09

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements and answers to media questions at a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Peter Szijjarto, Moscow, July 21, 2022


"Question:

Over the past year, we can see a trend that is dividing the European countries into two groups: the countries that follow Brussels’ policy and the countries that act in their national interests, like Hungary, for example. The latter often win. Don’t you think that the EU in its current form hinders the development of its member countries more than it contributes to it?

Sergey Lavrov:

I’m not going to dig deep into the EU’s internal development agenda. We read what is written about it. We hear what they say, including in the EU member countries. I can only state that the situation isn’t simple.

There is an ongoing battle. The European bureaucracy wants to subjugate everything and everyone, including national governments, dictate the terms and cut short any dissent. On the other hand, some member countries want to understand how much of its mandate it is using for their benefit, and how much of it represents abuse and is a matter of concern. This is the EU’s internal matter.

I want to make one simple thing clear. We are now seeing the reaction of the West (primarily, that of Brussels and many European capitals) to what is happening in Ukraine. Let me remind you that for many years, in our relations with the European Union, we have been pushing to create an equal and mutually beneficial architecture, including on foreign policy issues. We had some success, but the EU has always been haughty about our attempts to build a balance of interests, preferring instead to make decisions on its own and then impose them on us as the ultimate truth.

The same goes for Ukraine. This didn’t start in February. There was a coup. Right before that, EU representatives (France, Germany and Poland) guaranteed that there would be an agreement between the Ukrainian president and the opposition and signed the corresponding guarantees. The next morning, these guarantees were trampled on and torn apart, and the EU said nothing. It did not call on the putschists to honour the obligations signed by the EU.

The Minsk agreements were signed a year later.

France and Germany were also guarantors, but Kiev bluntly refused to fulfil the agreements. Recently, Petr Poroshenko admitted that he had signed them but had no intention of honouring them. He explained that it was necessary to gain time for Ukraine to receive new weapons. An open and cynical statement.

At that time, the EU tacitly connived in the subversion of the Minsk agreements by Kiev. Likewise, there was no response to Poroshenko’s candid admission. This is a disgrace for serious states that want to deal with important foreign policy challenges.

Now we are hearing hysterical statements about the violation of all thinkable standards of international humanitarian law and about the killing of people. This is true, people are dying, but it is necessary to face the truth and stop brushing aside the facts showing that people are primarily killed by the absolutely senseless shelling of civilian districts in Donbass and other parts of Ukraine by the Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions.

Second, I would like to ask the journalists (this is easy to do in our IT age) to look at how the EU reacted over the past eight years to the deaths of thousands of civilians due to shelling by the Ukrainian authorities at a time when the Minsk agreements were still valid and gave hope for peace in Ukraine sometime in the future. There was no response at all. They just said that this was their country and they had the right to not engage in any dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk. None of us has heard any condemnation of what the Ukrainian military was doing.

This attitude to one’s own guarantees as regards the Minsk agreements does not apply just to Ukraine. The EU and its bureaucrats behaved exactly the same way as regards the Kosovo problem.

Almost 10 years ago, the EU started acting as a mediator between Pristina and Belgrade at the request of the UN General Assembly. A document on creating a community of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo was coordinated in 2013 following these talks. Under the plan, it was decided to establish municipalities in the north of the territory that was mostly populated by Serbs. This was done to grant Serbs elementary rights in Kosovo – language, religion, culture, and economic ties with Serbia. The Minsk agreements contained almost the same provisions on the rights of Donbass in the state of Ukraine.

Pristina buried the agreement on the community of Serb municipalities. The EU has not expressed its attitude towards this outrageous behavior by its mentees.

I have the right to talk about the EU’s foreign policy because they were active in areas that are part of the international community agenda. It is sad to see how the EU is following the US-specified road – the collective West must be united; no step back, left or right; only forward to where their senior partner points.

I can only hope that the EU can overcome the current difficulties. Nobody is interested in a crisis in Europe. There are countries emphasising that their policy will be determined by their own national interests. They do not want to lose their national identity, culture, religion and traditions, including how to bring up children in families. I hope this fair and natural desire will prevail and be respected. This is the main point today."

https://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1823197/