Sergei Berdnikov is the Ambassador of Russia to Ghana
Being under a continuous influence of the western propaganda emanating from almost every news outlet or resource, be it printed mass-media or Internet websites, the ability to critically analyze incoming information inevitably decreases. Unfortunately, the Ghanaian reader is exposed to this phenomenon equally with residents of other countries where journalists give no alternative point of view on the current developments.
In this article, dear readers, together with you we’ll make an attempt to analyze the publicly known facts in order to clarify the real causes of the ongoing escalation in Ukraine. For this purpose, it is important to recall the background of the conflict itself.
In 2013, as a result of the coup d'etat in Ukraine organized by the United States and its European satellites outspoken supporters of neo-Nazi ideology were brought to power in Kiev. They immediately carried out a bloody massacre in the eastern part of the country, seeking to intimidate all dissenters with terror.
The Kiev's war with its own people in the Donbass region lasted for almost 8 years and resulted in more than 14 thousand people dead and more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees forced to flee to Russia.
My country has twice undertaken peacekeeping initiatives aimed at ending the bloodshed in 2014 and 2015. Ukraine signed the Minsk Agreements initiated by the Russian side, which represented a step-by-step plan for the return to a peaceful life.
But the Kiev regime renounced its international obligations, having preferred confrontation to peace settlement. Zelensky declared Ukraine’s nuclear ambitions and intentions to build up an anti-Russian military policy as a member of NATO.
Moscow reacted with concern to those statements, since Ukraine's accession to NATO would violate the global security architecture. During the IX Moscow Conference on International Security on June 23rd, 2021, President Putin announced a new formula for security in Europe. We suggested to develop a new "security equation" which would have taken into account all factors affecting the strategic stability. Those proposals formed the basis for the two draft agreements on security guarantees between Russia and the United States, Russia and NATO.
However, they were arrogantly rejected, which gave Ukraine carte blanche to sabotage the Minsk agreements.
The leaders of the guarantor countries of the Minsk agreements – former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former French President Francois Hollande and the former head of the Kiev regime, Petro Poroshenko, made a number of statements in which they openly admitted that none of them was going to follow the signed documents. In 2022, this was recognized by the official Kiev.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov said that the country's authorities began preparing for war with Russia in 2019.
The revelations of the immediate participants in those events indicate the initial interest of the Ukrainian political establishment in unleashing an armed conflict, and not at all in advancing the peace process. This fact was once again proven after the start of the Special military operation in February 2022, when, at the behest of Boris Johnson, the former UK Prime Minister, Ukraine derailed the peace negotiation process with Moscow in order to continue the escalation in favor of NATO task of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on the battlefield to Russia.
In general, after the 2014 coup, the Ukrainian ruling elite, with enormous financial support from the US and EU donors, began to actively implement the Western concept of building an "anti-Russian state" in place of Ukraine, aimed at weakening the Russian Federation by severing common trade, economic, cultural, ethnic, religious and family ties. Today, speaking Russian in Ukraine in a public place has become life and health-threatening.
As the current situation reveals, to achieve the said goal, Kiev, under hypocritical calls for peace, is ready, on orders from Washington and London, not only to "fight to the last Ukrainian", but also to openly resort to terrorism.
However, what else should be expected from the Nazi fans? Extremism as means of confrontation has long been used by the Kiev regime. In fact, such methods have been adopted by Ukraine as an instrument of the state policy.
The indisputable proof of the terrorist nature of the current Ukrainian administration is the practice adopted by it of physically eliminating political and public figures, civil servants and media representatives. Meanwhile, the country's leadership openly justifies and approves of such killings.
The elimination of undesirable persons is carefully planned by the Ukrainian secret services and implemented with their direct participation, and the use of explosive devices has become their favorite method:
– On August 20th, 2022, a journalist, political scientist and public figure Ms. Daria Dugina was murdered in a car bombing.
– On April 2nd, 2023, as a result of the detonation of an explosive device disguised as a statuette, a war correspondent Mr. Maxim Fomin was murdered in a cafe in Saint-Petersburg, and more than 50 people were injured.
– On May 6th, 2023, an assassination attempt was made on the writer and politician, co-chairman of the “Just Russia: For Truth” party Mr. Zakhar Prilepin.
Ukrainian neo-Nazis opened the hunt for representatives of the Russian media.
More than 30 journalists have died at their hands during the conflict.
Terror, the cultivation of fear and chaos in society, violence, murder and intimidation of civilians are considered by the Kiev regime as part of the conduct of hostilities, an integral element of which has become the daily massive shelling of peaceful residential areas, life support facilities, civil and industrial infrastructure.
Since February 2022, the armed formations of Ukraine (AFU) have carried out more than 1,600 attacks on Russian civil, energy and transport infrastructure facilities, resulting in large-scale destruction and numerous civilian casualties.
As of May 2024, the investigation confirmed that more than 2,900 civilians of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions had died as a result of these actions, including 114 minors.
Trying to terrorize and coerce the population of Russia to destabilize the internal social and political environment, the Ukrainian command strikes low-speed unmanned aerial vehicles of the aircraft type (UAVs) at civilian facilities located deep in the Russian territories – hundreds and thousands of kilometers away from the front line (Moscow, Tula, Kazan, Saratov, St. Petersburg, Murmansk, etc.).
It is particularly crucial to highlight the terrorist crimes against Russian nuclear infrastructure facilities committed by the Zelensky regime from 2022 to the first half of 2024 (more detailed material on this issue is provided in the Special Report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, which can be accessed by scanning the QR code).
The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which is the largest Russian nuclear power plant in Europe, is most often attacked by the Ukrainian AFU.
The strikes are carried out both on the infrastructure of the station, that ensures its operability and safety, and on the satellite city of Energodar, where the station employees and their families live.
Only after the Russian side provided irrefutable evidence of the AFU attacks, the IAEA officials called for an end to the strikes on the Zaporozhye NPP.
However, on August 11th, 2024 the Ukrainian militants made another UAV strike, resulted in a fire broken out and the physical integrity of the plant damaged, which is regarded by experts as an unprecedented threat to nuclear safety. The Armed Forces of Ukraine also do not abandon attempts to strike at other Russian nuclear power facilities.
In particular, on May 5th, 2023, terrorist attacks on the Leningrad and Kalinin Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) were prevented. A terrorist group of three Ukrainian citizens of acting on the instructions of the Ukraine special services was neutralized. According to the testimony, they intended to undermine more than 30 poles of high-voltage power lines that make up the critical energy circuit of the abovementioned nuclear power plants.
The Ukrainian fighters captured in the Kursk region also confessed, that the key task of their incursion to the Russian territory on August 6th, 2024 was to seize the Kursk NPP. Zelensky's attempt to use "nuclear blackmail", which resulted in the death of more than 16 thousand servicemen from his most combat-ready formations, has once again demonstrated the unwillingness of the Kiev regime to peace negotiations.
Apart from that, the Russian investigative authorities have proven Ukraine's involvement in the terrorist attack on the "Crocus City Hall" in the city of Krasnogorsk.
Let me remind you that on the evening of March 22nd, 2024, four terrorists opened an indiscriminate fire at the "Crocus City Hall" concert hall, murdering people who came to the event in cold blood, regardless of gender and age. They spilled and set fire to a flammable liquid, depriving people inside the building of the opportunity to take cover.
At the end of that horrendous attack, 144 people were killed, including three children, and 551 people were injured.
Investigating into the terrorist attack, the competent authorities of the Russian Federation obtained information proving that the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine was directly involved in the massacre in Krasnogorsk. The terrorist attack had been carefully plotted, weapons and tools of terror procured, escape routes for the terrorists across the Russian-Ukrainian border prepared in advance, with a "window" provided for their crossing into the territory of Ukraine.
The analysis of the terrorists' means of communication revealed additional information exposing their contacts with the Ukrainian secret services.
Furthermore, the investigation also has at its disposal verified data on the receipt by the perpetrators of the terrorist attack of significant amounts of cash and cryptocurrency from Ukraine used in the preparation of the crime.
Right after these tragic events, without waiting for the interim results of the investigation and amid the unequivocal international condemnation of this terrorist attack, the western media, White House, British and EU officials launched a PR-campaign denying the involvement of Ukrainian secret services in this crime. What is more, they had begun to deny the connection even before this issue was raised in the media space.
Despite the irrefutable evidence obtained by the investigative bodies proving that the Zelensky regime was behind the terrorist attack, they are still trying to convince Russia that the terrorist attack was not commissioned by Kiev, but committed by some supporters of the radical Islamist ideology. Someone would probably like to convince the world public of that, but the facts say otherwise.
Alongside with the violations of international humanitarian law by Ukrainian armed groups, mercenaries and their sponsors in the United States and NATO countries, the military-political leadership of Ukraine actively uses terrorist organizations in its criminal activities.
In October 2014, the "Sheikh Mansour Peacekeeping Battalion" (SMB) was formed. The main personnel of the SMB are former fighters of the illegal armed groups of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and radical Islamists with experience of fighting against the government forces of the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria).
In 2022, it was joined, in particular, by Arab fighters in order to subsequently apply the experience gained in Ukraine in battles against the government forces in Syria. About 60 ISIS fighters between the ages of 20 and 25 were reportedly released from Syrian Kurdish-controlled prisons in April 2022 with the participation of the US intelligence agencies. They were then transferred to the area of the US military base Al-Tanf, located in Syria near the border with Jordan and Iraq, to undergo combat training for subsequent transfer to the Ukrainian territory.
In this regard, there is nothing surprising in Ukraine's support for terrorists in the Sahara-Sahel region. The recent barbaric terrorist attack against the Malian Defense and Security Forces on 24, 25 and 26 July 2024 in Tinzawatene, Mali, backed by the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Agency is yet just another evidence of the Kiev’s true nature.
It is obvious that nowadays Ukraine is not interested in a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Moreover, in this context, it is also important to take into account the Zelensky’s personal motivation. After his presidential tenure expired on May 20th, 2024, the only way for him to escape punishment for the committed war crimes is to usurp power, which is possible only if the conflict continues, which could justify the need for further financing of the Kiev regime from Western countries.
Summarizing the above, I have to acknowledge with regret that today's Ukraine is a typical example of a neocolonial quasi-state, whose puppet government pays with the interests of its own people for the policy of the metropolises.
However, sooner or later the foreign policy priorities of London and Washington will change, leaving the incumbent Kiev authorities alone with the tragedy they have created with their own hands, which will continue affecting the people of Ukraine for a long time. This has repeatedly happened in history: In Vietnam, the Americans also told their henchmen that they would never leave them.
In Afghanistan, they said that they would not abandon President Ghani, but eventually they did not even warn him that their foreign concept had changed, and instead of fulfilling their promises, they simply ran away. After more than 20 years of occupation of Iraq, American politicians have started talking about the final withdrawal of their military contingent from there, which, let me remind you, was introduced under the pretext of the Saddam Hussein's regime possessing weapons of mass destruction. They never found any weapons, but they left, according to various estimates, about 2 million Iraqis dead.
Taking into account the designated line of conduct of Ukraine itself, as well as its western curators, the only acceptable conditions for us to start peace negotiations remain those voiced by President Vladimir Putin during the meeting with the leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 15th this year, namely:
"Ukrainian troops must be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Provided that, <...> it is done from the entire territory of these regions within their administrative borders, which existed at the time of their entry into Ukraine.
As soon as Kiev declares that they are ready for such a decision, and they will begin the real withdrawal of troops from these regions, as well as officially notify about the rejection of plans to join NATO, from our side immediately, literally the same minute, the exact order will be given to cease fire and start negotiations."
Sergei Berdnikov is the Ambassador of Russia to Ghana
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