This November 21 marks 10 years since the beginning of protests in Kiev (the so-called “Euromaidan”) that lasted between November 2013 and February 2014, causing a sharp polarization of Ukrainian society, unbridled nationalism and a worsening of the economic and social in this country. All of this ended in an unconstitutional coup d’état and the coming to power of radical nationalist forces. Which in turn caused kyiv’s civil war against the population of Donbas and other regions that had rejected the coup d’état and the subsequent decomposition of the Ukrainian State.
We can never forget the bombings of civilian neighborhoods in cities in Eastern Ukraine, the bloodbath organized on May 2, 2014 in the Odessa Guild Hall where 48 people died, many burned alive, etc.
a bit of history
At the end of November 2013, the then legitimate president of Ukraine Victor Yanukovych decided to postpone the signing of the Ukraine-European Union Association Treaty. This served as a pretext for some Ukrainian political forces to start protests in the city center of kyiv. I want to emphasize that Yanukovych did not propose to abandon the signing of said agreement, but to reconsider it taking into account, among other things, the interests of Ukrainian agricultural producers and Ukraine’s obligations under the already existing Free Trade Agreement. In addition, Yanukovych proposed holding negotiations in the Ukraine-EU-Russia format. But the West and the coup plotters in kyiv rejected it.
The role of the West
It is difficult to overestimate the negative and harmful role that Western countries played and continue to play in this situation. It all stems from the desire of the NATO countries to inflict strategic defeat on Russia (they say it openly), to eliminate Russia as an independent power from the political map. The same plans to conquer Russia that Napoleon and Hitler, and many others, had at the time. At the same time, the West had tried to destroy the unique historical, economic and spiritual space of the former Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, to break the centuries-old ties between our peoples. In this context, Ukraine is nothing more than a tool in the hands of our enemies. “Euromaidan” was financed and supported by EU countries and the US. Any attempt to present the current crisis as a bilateral conflict between Russia and Ukraine is hypocritical and false.
Today military hostilities against Russia are carried out almost exclusively due to the West’s financial and military support for kyiv. Since the start of the special military operation, total aid to kyiv has exceeded US$160 billion. For comparison, Washington’s humanitarian aid to the entire African continent in 2023 is US$4 trillion.
International Law and the new territorial realities
The 1970 UN General Assembly Declaration on the Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations prioritizes the principle of self-determination of peoples before the of territorial integrity. In particular, it says that all States are obliged to respect the territorial integrity of States whose governments recognize the right of peoples to self-determination and represent all the people belonging to the territory, without distinction based on race, creed or color.
After the 2014 coup d’état, Ukraine, in violation of the above-mentioned document, had been building itself on the basis of the racist narrative of denying everything Russian, including the identity, culture and traditions of the population of the vast southern territories. and the east of the country. Their rights had been systematically violated, including through the use of force, and their interests had been ignored. This constituted an irreversible blow to the territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its 1991 borders, and forced the inhabitants of Crimea and Sevastopol, of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to express their rejection of the racist regime in Kiev, exercising their right to self-determination through corresponding referendums.
The Minsk process
The Minsk Package, recognized by the UN Security Council in its Resolution 2202, offered an opportunity to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine (without Crimea). However, Kiev and the Western “guarantors”, Germany and France, deliberately sabotaged this opportunity: Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Pyotr Poroshenko admitted openly, and even proudly, that they had had no intention of carrying out what was agreed and that the signing of the Package had only been necessary to buy time for the purpose of militarizing Ukraine to fight Russia.
Russia’s role
Despite Western promises not to move NATO even an inch closer to Russia, made after the fall of the USSR, NATO’s military machine and war infrastructure continues to approach our borders. All this, in a severe violation of the so-called OSCE Istanbul Document which stipulates that all European States must not strengthen their own security at the expense of that of others (in this case, at the expense of the security of Russia). Furthermore, they began the military colonization of Ukraine. Russia patiently raised its concerns with NATO. In December 2021 we sent our proposals to NATO and Washington, proposing to sit at the table to analyze the situation and threats to Russia. Back then we could have solved it without resorting to force. But Western capitals rejected him.
All those events forced Russia to begin the special military operation with the objectives of defending the Russian-speaking population of Eastern and Southern Ukraine, demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine, eliminating the threat coming from its territory.
Epilogue
Today, many experts both in Russia and abroad believe that kyiv’s current policy will lead Ukraine to the total loss of sovereignty and solidification of its role as an anti-Russian puppet of the West. I am sure that this contradicts the aspirations and interests of the brotherly Ukrainian people.
Nikolay Tavdumadze
Russian Ambassador to Colombia
#bitter #aftertaste #Euromaidan