Moscow: No one objects that peace is better than war, the director of the Latin America department of the Russian Foreign Ministry answered, Alexandr Schetinin, when asked about the reason for the military operation in Ukraine, Prensa Latina publishes.
A diplomat with vast experience, the high-ranking Russian official underscored that ?dialogue is better than confrontation and that negotiations are better than military actions?, when being interviewed by the Telesur channel.
He commented that his country expected a political solution to the international controversies of the last three decades as a result of the challenges launched against Moscow by the West and, above all, by the United States.
He recalled that in 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved and Russia at that time opened its doors to broad and multisectoral cooperation with Western countries, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
?We expected the formation of an indivisible and uniform European security. They promised us – and there are documents that prove it – that the military structure would not advance even one centimeter eastward. But we were misled,? he pointed out.
He explained that since then the Atlantic Alliance has added 14 new countries, has immediately approached the borders of Russia, with anti-missile defense systems that are already deployed in the territories of Poland and Romania.
According to Schetinin, at the same time the project of an “Ukraine against Russia” was developed, which was incorporated into NATO’s military mechanisms, “which put us before a threat to national security.”
He noted that Ukraine has become an aggressive, Russophobic state with a clear Nazi ideology.
He expanded that in the last eight years, the population of the Donbass region suffered the genocide that caused the death of approximately 15 thousand people, ?without the human rights defenders of the West showing concern?, he emphasized.
The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that in recent weeks, “red lines” that constitute threats to the country’s security were crossed.
“We know very clearly that there were plans for a military offensive on March 8 against the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics,” he said.
He added that Kyiv declared its intention to create nuclear weapons, as well as its participation in the production of biological pathogens in laboratories on its territory in cooperation with the United States.
“As a result of that, the diplomatic possibilities of negotiations were completely exhausted,” he stressed.
He said that by the end of February Russia could no longer tolerate Western provocations in favor of Ukraine becoming a beachhead against its geopolitical interests. “We had to act,” he emphasized.
Regarding the possible end of the Russian military operation, Schetinin clarified that the conditions to achieve it were delivered to Kyiv, are public, and are part of the discussions between delegations from both countries.
He listed that they are related to the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, which also has to cease its military activities, include its neutral status in the Constitution, recognize Crimea as part of Russia, as well as the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
“In that case, Russia’s military operation can end at any time,” he stressed, while pointing out that the solution to the Ukrainian crisis is premised on the need to eliminate the bases that caused it.
?It is necessary to establish a balanced, effective and stable structure that favors European security, through equitable negotiations, based on mutual respect, on the principle of the indivisibility of security and it is necessary not to add fuel to the fire?, he stated.
