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Original article: Portavoz de la cancillería rusa sobre operación militar especial en Ucrania: «Una paz duradera, justa y sostenible solo es posible si se eliminan las causas originarias del conflicto»

On February 24, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, addressed the fourth anniversary of the military operation in Ukraine, stating that «a lasting, just, and sustainable peace is only possible if the root causes of the conflict are eliminated.»

«Four years ago, on February 24, 2022, the Armed Forces of Russia, following the decision of President Vladimir Putin and based on the provisions of the Russian Federation Constitution, began executing the special military operation,» Zakharova highlighted.

She further added, «Its aim is to eliminate the threats posed by the Kiev regime from the territories under its control and to ensure the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.»

The Russian spokesperson emphasized that all actions taken during this operation «are carried out in strict accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, which regulates the right to legitimate individual and collective self-defense.»

«This necessary step was preceded by eight long years during which Russia, with full responsibility, tried to facilitate a political-diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Donbas, which was a consequence of the armed coup organized, financed, and orchestrated by the West in February 2014,» she recalled.

Zakharova noted, «Those who did not accept the dictatorship of the ‘Maidan victors,’ meaning millions of civilians in Donbas and Novorossiya, were subjected to multiple repressions. By 2022, the number of civilian casualties in Donbas due to the armed conflict exceeded 13,500 people.»

In light of this, Maria Zakharova stated, «A large-scale propaganda campaign was deployed against Russia, whose sole aim was to convince the world that Russians and all our peoples who consider themselves part of the great Russian world supposedly do not have the right to preserve their national and cultural identity, either in Ukraine or anywhere else.»

Nuclear Threat

The spokesperson also reminded that «since 2014, with Western assistance, there has been a dynamic process of militarization of Ukraine and military preparation of its territory as a potential theater of military operations against Russia, which created threats comparable to the threat to our country’s existence. All this, along with the unstoppable expansion of NATO, led to a deep security crisis in Europe.»

At this point, she stressed that Russia «tried to communicate our stance to Washington and Brussels, explaining for a long time and insistently where our ‘red lines’ are and why. But our proposals for legal security guarantees, which included NATO’s non-expansion eastward, were ignored,» she emphasized.

Furthermore, Zakharova recalled, «We were deeply concerned by Zelensky’s public claim in February 2022 at the Munich Security Conference that Ukraine intended to possess nuclear weapons, which posed real risks for Russia and for strategic stability as a whole.»

Thus, the Russian spokesperson continued, «The three fundamental pillars of the Ukrainian state’s status were destroyed: its neutral, non-aligned, and non-nuclear status, which had guaranteed its international recognition in the early 1990s.»

Moreover, she stated that, among other things, the special military operation «has revealed the Western plans, led by the Anglo-Saxons, to impose a ‘rules-based international order’ on the international community, whose sole purpose is to secure and maintain Western hegemony.»

In conclusion, Maria Zakharova asserted that «all the objectives of the special military operation will be achieved. A lasting, just, and sustainable peace is only possible if the root causes of the conflict are eliminated. Our current diplomatic efforts are directed at achieving this task, including through contacts with countries of the majority worldwide and within the framework of Russian-American dialogue.»

In the cover photo, two members of the Azov battalion, formed from the ultranationalist Patriot of Ukraine gang and the neo-Nazi National Social Assembly (SNA), are depicted. Sharing xenophobic ideals, their early actions involved assaults on immigrants and Roma people, later integrating officially into the National Guard of Ukraine in November 2014.

The Citizen

La entrada Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Discusses Ukraine Military Operation: «Lasting, Just, and Sustainable Peace Requires Addressing Root Causes of Conflict» se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.