The Russian-led special military operation in Ukraine is a necessary measure, since Moscow "was left no chance to do otherwise."
This was announced on Thursday, February 24, by Vladimir Putin at a meeting with representatives of Russian business circles.
According to him, such security risks were created for the Russian Federation that it was impossible to respond by other means.
“Honestly, I'm even surprised.
We have not moved a millimeter on any issue,” the President stated.
“They could create such risks for us that it’s not at all clear how the country would continue to exist.”
Earlier, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said at a meeting of the Security Council of the world organization that the reason for the crisis in Ukraine was, first of all, the unwillingness of the Kiev leadership to fulfill its obligations in relation to the Donbass.
“The root of the current crisis around Ukraine is in the actions of Ukraine itself, which has been engaged in many years of sabotage of its direct obligations under the Minsk Package of Measures,” Nebenzya said.
According to him, for all the time since the conclusion of the agreements, Kiev has not bothered to establish a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk and grant Donbass a special status.
And in this, the permanent representative of the Russian Federation added, the fault is not only of the Ukrainian authorities, but also of their Western patrons.
Recall that during regular negotiations in the Normandy format in November 2021, France and Germany stated that the Kiev authorities consider direct dialogue with the DPR and LPR unacceptable.
Their position became known after the Russian Foreign Ministry published the correspondence between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Foreign Ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas.
As explained then in the Russian Foreign Ministry, the decision to take such a step was dictated by the constant distortion of Russia's position and its role in the internal Ukrainian settlement.
“It seems that this is again about an attempt to create conditions for a radical revision of the set of measures to please Kiev, which officially and publicly refuses to implement it,” Lavrov said in a response to his European colleagues.
Speaking at the UN, Vasily Nebenzya stressed that the West did not hear the explanations of the Russian leadership regarding the decision to recognize the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR.
He also called surprising the indifference of Western countries to the suffering of four million people living in Donbass.
“For you, the inhabitants of Donbass are only a bargaining chip in the geopolitical game aimed at weakening Russia and advancing the NATO bloc to its borders.
For us, these are women, children, old people who have been hiding from Ukrainian shelling and provocations for eight years.
For us, this is the Ukrainian people, suffering under the yoke of the Maidan authorities, ”Nebenzya emphasized.
At the same time, according to him, the West will not be able to understand the motives of Russia's actions until it changes its "geopolitical optics."
Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya
AFP
© TIMOTHY A. CLARY
At the expense of Ukraine
Meanwhile, the United States saw in the appeal of the leadership of the DPR and LPR to Russia for help in repelling aggression from the Armed Forces of Ukraine an example of a “false flag operation”.
This was during a briefing on February 23, said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
“As we said from the very beginning, there will be a number of false flag operations that we expected to see, and for which we have developed a plan of action.
This is one example,” Psaki said.
Washington will continue to point out what it considers to be such operations or disinformation efforts, she said.
At the same time, Psaki repeated that the United States does not plan to send its troops to Ukraine.
In turn, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in an interview with CBS on February 23, noted that he considers the consolidation of the United States and European countries against Russia a success of American diplomacy against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis.
“Diplomacy has made significant progress in rallying the world, the United States and Europe against Russian aggression,” Blinken said.
According to him, Washington, together with its allies, spent several months "preparing extremely serious consequences for Russia."
Then he threatened the Russian Federation that in the event of further "aggression" Russia would pay for this "for a long, long time."
American predictions
It is worth noting that the United States started talking about Russia's plans to organize a "false flag operation" back in mid-January.
So, on January 14, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a briefing that a group of certain operatives allegedly could carry out such an operation in Ukraine.
“Russian agents have already taken up positions in Ukraine to carry out a so-called false flag operation, which should look like an attack on Russian speakers in Ukraine, which again will be an excuse for an invasion,” Kirby said.
In turn, Blinken, at a meeting of the UN Security Council on February 17, said at all that Russia would be ready to stage a strike on itself or even use chemical weapons to fabricate a pretext for bringing Russian troops into Ukraine.
Instead, the leadership of the DNR and LNR, whose sovereignty was recognized by Moscow on February 21, directly turned to the Russian authorities for help in repelling aggression from Kiev.
In connection with this appeal, the President of the Russian Federation decided to conduct a special military operation.
According to Vladimir Putin, this was done in accordance with Article 51 of Part 7 of the UN Charter, with the sanction of the Russian Federation Council and in pursuance of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance ratified by the Federal Assembly on February 22 with the republics.
“Its (special operation. -
RT
) goal is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.
And for this, we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous, bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation... Our actions are self-defense against the threats posed to us and from more greater disaster than the one that is happening today, ”Putin explained.
In addition, the Russian president stressed that Moscow cannot allow the military development of the territories of Ukraine by the North Atlantic Alliance.
“For the United States and its allies, this is the so-called policy of containing Russia, obvious geopolitical dividends.
And for our country, this is ultimately a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical future as a people... This is a real threat not just to our interests, but to the very existence of our state, its sovereignty.
This is the very red line that has been talked about many times.
They crossed it, ”said the head of the Russian Federation.
NATO military
AFP
© Jonathan NACKSTRAND
Consumer attitude
Experts interviewed by RT note that the United States and its allies reacted rather consumer-friendly to the situation in Ukraine: daily escalating the situation and pumping up the country with weapons, in Western capitals they preferred to turn a blind eye to the impact this has on the well-being of Ukraine in general and its inhabitants in particular.
“The US is pursuing geopolitical goals.
After all, it all started with the events of 2014, when both the US and the EU supported the anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine.
Therefore, today the West turns a blind eye to what is happening in the Donbass, including the outright genocide of the local population, as this does not correspond to their interests,” said Sergey Ermakov, an expert at the RISS Research Coordination Center.
In turn, according to HSE professor Dmitry Evstafiev, the West is ready to support Ukraine only remotely, “throwing” it with money and weapons.
“The whole situation shows the poorly concealed duplicity of our American partners, who, on the one hand, pushed the Ukrainian Nazis, who were losing ground under their feet, in every possible way to aggravate the situation in Donbass, and on the other, they immediately declared that they would not fight for their quasi-ally,” noted the interlocutor of RT.
At the same time, the expert stressed that the United States, having launched a campaign to escalate the situation around Ukraine, thereby framed its European allies.
After all, now hostilities are being conducted right next to Europe, and Washington is watching this from the sidelines.
This is not the first time that the United States has put Europeans in a difficult position, said Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber.
“One has only to remember the conclusion, but in fact the flight of the American contingent from Afghanistan.
Then Washington left the allies to deal with the consequences in the form of a flood of refugees alone.
But past mistakes, apparently, do not teach Brussels anything, ”the analyst said in a conversation with RT.
Now, in his opinion, the timing of the détente of the situation with Ukraine will depend on the results of Russia's special operation.
“At the moment, we are at the epicenter of such tectonic processes that will not end overnight.
But I really hope that there will be no big war, and the military operation to force Ukraine to peace, its denazification and demilitarization will end as soon as possible and with minimal losses, ”said Danyuk.
Dmitry Evstafiev believes that this process can be facilitated by the return of Ukraine to the status of a non-aligned and neutral state.
“This will create a new political atmosphere in Europe and may contribute to the return of NATO and the United States to dialogue with Russia on security guarantees,” the analyst concluded.