Moscow: The military operation that confronts Russia and Ukraine today aims to prevent a global confrontation and end hostilities in Donbass, said the spokeswoman for the local Foreign Ministry, María Zajárova, Prensa Latina published.
The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the NTV channel that the operation deployed by Moscow the day before “is not the beginning of a war, it is the prevention of a catastrophic scenario for the development of that war.”
According to Zakharova, ?those who believe that the war, as they call it, started today, are blatantly lying. The war has been going on for eight years.
She stressed that during that time Russia has been making all kinds of political and diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict and, furthermore, not to give it the opportunity to become something more global.
The Russian official denounced that for eight years a bloody war has been waged with civilian victims in Donbass.
In her opinion, the war was waged on several fronts, that of unilateral sanctions, the media and the psychological.
She clarified that, however, Moscow has not left the negotiating table with the West, and she hopes that the dialogue will continue.
She explained that she even confirmed a meeting between the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, which should have taken place this Thursday.
However, she said, a few hours before Lavrov’s delegation flew to Geneva for talks with American partners, the latter canceled the meeting.
Russia launched a military operation in the Ukrainian autonomous region of Donbass early Thursday morning, after the authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republics (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) requested help to repel Kiev’s aggression.
On February 21, Moscow recognized the independence of both territories and signed treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with those leaders, which included the establishment of diplomatic relations and military aid.
In a speech to the nation, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia will try to protect the population of Donbass and “demilitarize” Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense assured that the Armed Forces of his country do not launch attacks on Ukrainian cities, but against military infrastructures, air defense facilities, airfields and military aviation with high-precision weapons. She stressed that the civilian population of Ukraine is not threatened.
According to Putin, Russia does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories, but rather to defend the right of the peoples of Ukraine to self-determination.
He also reiterated that Moscow cannot allow Kiev to acquire nuclear weapons and continue to militarize, which constitutes a danger to Russia’s security.
He stressed the president that the continued expansion of NATO to the east is unacceptable.