🎙 #Opinion by María Zakharova:

BioBiden

We can get a rough idea of the US political elites’ involvement in the military biological activity in Ukraine if we rely on open sources as well as leaked documents. Below is an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of this involvement, though not a comprehensive one. There are many gaps in this truly diabolical plan that are still to be filled.

1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar programme for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon's Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the programme’s main executor.
1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.
2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists' hands.

2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.
2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”

2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently - Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.
2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’ stepson Christopher Heinz and incumbent US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
2014 – anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.
2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organisation specialising in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defence.
2014 - Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to "assert Ukraine's cultural & economic independence from Russia".
2014 - Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed "science project in Ukraine".
2014 - Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programmes.
2014-2016 - Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.
2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation programme is greatly expanded.
2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defence Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.
2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defence Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.
2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research centre in a Wuhan laboratory, China.
2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.
2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.
February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.
February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.
March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.

🗓 Top News Today

▫️The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue their offensive in the course of the special military operation.

💥 High-precision, long-range aviation weapons destroyed a large fuel base near Lvov, which provided fuel for Ukrainian troops in western Ukraine, as well as near Kiev. High-precision cruise missiles have destroyed the workshops of Lvov Radio Repair Plant in Lvov city. Also, high-precision sea-based long-range weapons destroyed a warehouse of missiles for S-300 and Buk anti-aircraft missile systems in Plesetskoye.

🚌 Russian servicemen organized a safe route for about 90 citizens of Russia, Moldova and Ukraine to move them from Kherson region.

📹 The Russian Ministry of Defence has published footage of destruction of the 2S-7 Pion high-power self-propelled artillery system by high-precision missile weapons, the combat work of Russian Armed Forces units and footage of humanitarian aid delivery to Ukrainian cities.

🏥 Russian servicemen provided medical assistance to residents of Kiev region who were injured after shelling by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine
@mod_russia_en

🇷🇺🗞📺📢 Mass Media of Russia about Situation in 🇺🇦 Ukraine

1. Political statements by the leadership of the Russian Federation and friendly countries

☝The situation in the world is tense to the limit, the policy of the West to contain Russia has reached a climax, was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the Support of Public Diplomacy Gorchakov.

The international situation has heated up to the limit, in fact, we are witnessing the culmination of the policy of containment of Russia, which the West has been pursuing for a long time, the Foreign Minister noted. According to Lavrov, its goal was "to weaken Moscow's positions and revive the unipolar world. The West did not hide it, demanding from other countries to obey the rules established by it. The United States plays a critical role in advancing this policy, the minister said. Today we have been declared a real hybrid war, a total war. This term, which was used by Nazi Germany, is now used by many European politicians when they say what they want to do with the Russian Federation", Lavrov said, adding that the West openly recognizes that its goal is to "destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia as a whole." At the same time, the West easily discards the values that it spoke about earlier when it comes to countering Russia. "I mean freedom of expression, the market economy, the inviolability of private property, the presumption of innocence - all these values are worthless," Lavrov said, calling the policy that is currently being pursued against the Russian Federation "sanctions lawlessness." (https://rg.ru)

25.03.2022

📃Speech of the Head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy

🔸️In accordance with the decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief since February 24 this year the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are conducting a special military operation. Its main goal is to provide assistance to the people of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics, who have been subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime for 8 years. It was impossible to achieve this goal by political means. Kiev has publicly refused to implement the Minsk agreements.

🔸️The Ukrainian leadership twice in 2014 and 2015 tried to solve the so-called Donbass problem by military means, was defeated, but did not change its plans on resolving conflict by force in the East of the country. According to reliable data, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were completing the preparation of a military operation to take control of the territory of the people's republics.

🔸️In these conditions, it was possible to help the Donetsk and Lugansk republics only by providing them with military assistance. Which Russia has done. There were two possible courses of action. The first is to limit the territory to only the DPR and the LPR within the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which is enshrined in the constitutions of the republics. But then
we would be faced with constant feeding by the Ukrainian authorities of the grouping involved in the so-called joint force operation. Therefore, the second option was chosen, which provides for actions throughout the territory of Ukraine with the implementation of measures for its demilitarization and denazification.

🔸️The course of the operation confirmed the validity of this decision. It is conducted by the General Staff in strict accordance with the approved plan. The tasks are carried out taking into account minimizing losses among personnel and minimizing damage to civilians. With the beginning of a special military operation, air supremacy was won during the first two days. Offensive actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are carried out in various directions. As a result, Russian troops blocked Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and Nikolaev. Kherson and most of the Zaporozhye region are under full control.

🔸️The public and individual experts are wondering what we are doing in the area of blocked Ukrainian cities. These actions are carried out with the aim of causing such damage to military infrastructure, equipment, personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the results of which allow not only to shackle their forces and do not give them the opportunity to strengthen their grouping in the Donbass, but also will not allow them to do so until the Russian army completely liberates the territories of the DPR and LPR. Initially, we did not plan to storm them in order to prevent destruction and minimize losses among personnel and civilians.

🔸️And although we do not rule out such a possibility, however, as individual groups complete their tasks, and they are being solved successfully, our forces and means will concentrate on the main thing - the complete liberation of Donbass. Significant territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics have also been liberated. The people's militia has taken control of 276 settlements that were previously under the control of the Ukrainian army and the national battalions.

🔸️Demilitarization of Ukraine is achieved both by high-precision strikes on military infrastructure facilities, locations of formations and military units, airfields, control points, arsenals and warehouses of weapons and military equipment, and by the actions of troops to defeat opposing enemy groupings.

🔸️Currently, the Ukrainian air forces and the air defence system have been almost completely destroyed. The naval forces of the country ceased to exist. 16 main military airfields were defeated, from which combat sorties of the AFU aviation were carried out. 39 storage bases and arsenals were destroyed, which contained up to 70% of all stocks of military equipment, materiel and fuel, as well as more than 1 million 54 thousand tons of ammunition.

🔸️All 24 formations of the Army that existed before the start of the operation suffered significant losses. Ukraine has no organized reserves left. Losses are replenished at the expense of mobilized persons and personnel of the territorial defence forces who do not have the necessary training, which increases the risk of large losses. At the time of the start of the special military operation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the National Guard, numbered 260 thousand 200 servicemen. During the month of hostilities, their losses amounted to about 30 thousand people, including more than 14 thousand – irretrievable and about 16 thousand – sanitary.

🔸️Of the 2,416 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles that were in combat on February 24, 1,587 units were destroyed; 636 units out of 1,509 field artillery guns and mortars; 163 out of 535 "MLRS" 112 out of 152 aircraft, 75 out of 149 helicopters; 36 "Bayraktar" TB2 UAVs – 35; 180 out of 148 S-300 and "Buk-Ml" air defence systems; 300 out of 117 radars for various purposes. The AFU continue to use high-powered weapons indiscriminately against towns in Donbass. An example of this is the strikes by the "Tochka-U" missile system on the civilian population of Donetsk and Makeyevka. In this regard, they are the primary targets.

🔸️As of today, 7 "Tochka-U"; launchers have been destroyed, and 85% of missiles are in arsenals and in the air. This significantly limited Ukraine's capabilities for their combat use. Since the beginning of hostilities, the Western countries have supplied the Kiev regime with 109 field artillery guns, 3,800 antitank weapons, including "Javelin", "Milan", "Konkurs", "NLAW ATGM", "M-72", "Panzerfaust-3", 897 "Stinger" and "Igla", MANPADS.

🔸️We consider it a vast mistake for Western countries to supply weapons to Kiev. This delays the conflict, increases the number of victims and will not be able to influence the outcome of the operation. The real purpose of such supplies is not tosupport Ukraine, but to drag it into a long-term military conflict "to the last Ukrainian".

🔸️We are closely monitoring the statements of the military and political leadership of individual countries about their intention to supply aircraft and air defence systems to Ukraine. In case of implementation – we will not leave it without attention. We also hear assurances from NATO leaders about noninterference in the conflict. At the same time, some member states of the North
Atlantic Alliance propose to close the airspace over Ukraine. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will immediately respond accordingly to such attempts. In order to prevent the restoration of weapons and military equipment of the AFU that have received combat damage, the Russian Armed Forces are disabling repair enterprises, arsenals, storage bases, logistics warehouses with high-precision weapons.

🔸️At the moment, 30 key enterprises of the military-industrial complex have been hit by cruise missiles "X-101", "Kalibr", "Iskander", and "Kinzhal" aviation complex, which carried out repairs of 68% of weapons and equipment disabled during combat operations. Russian modern weaponry has proven to be highly
accurate, reliable and capable of operational use. I would like to emphasize that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation do not strike at civilian infrastructure facilities, including the destruction of bridges across rivers.

🔸️127 bridges were destroyed in the area of military operations. All of them were blown up by Ukrainian nationalists in order to deter the advance of our troops.

🔸️Another example of recklessness is the mining of approaches to the ports of Odessa, Ochakov, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, where over 400 anchor mines of obsolete types are installed. At least 10 mines have broken anchor and are drifting in the western part of the Black Sea, which poses a real threat to warships and civilian vessels. The rampant crime, looting and marauding and civilian deaths have been caused by the Ukrainian regime's massive uncontrolled distribution of tens of thousands of small arms to the civilian population, including to criminals released from prisons. The situation will only get worse in the future.

🔸️The course of hostilities, the testimonies of civilians who left the blockaded settlements and captured Ukrainian servicemen show that today the AFU's ability to resist is based on fear of reprisals by neo-Nazis. Their representatives are embedded in all military units. The mainstay of the Kiev regime are nationalist formations such as "Azov", "Aidar", "Right Sector" and others recognized in Russia as terrorist organizations. In Mariupol alone, they include more than 7 thousand militants who are fighting under the guise of civilians, using them as a "human shield". The militants of the "Azov" battalion drive women and children out of the basements, threatening them with weapons, and send them towards the advancing units of the DPR in order to hinder the advance of the people's militia. This has become a common practice for them.

🔸️The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, on the contrary, seek to avoid unnecessary losses. Before the start of the offensive, the AFU units are invited to leave the combat area and move along with equipment and weapons to the point of permanent
deployment. Not to resist when the offensive begins and those who lay down their arms are guaranteed safety. Civilians caught in a war
zone are always advised to stay in their homes. Humanitarian corridors are being organized in all cities to get the population out of the area of hostilities, and their security is also maintained. Humanitarian corridors are being created in all towns to allow people to leave the area where the fighting is taking place, and their security is being maintained. In addition, at the initiative of the Ukrainian leadership, the country has become a home to 6,595 foreign mercenaries and terrorists from 62 states.

🔸️They are not subject to the rules of war and will be ruthlessly destroyed. Today, the number of foreign mercenaries is declining. This was facilitated by high-precision strikes on their bases and training camps. On March 13, more than 200 militants were killed and more than 400 wounded in Starichi and "at the Yavorovskii training ground alone. I note that not a single foreign mercenary has arrived in Ukraine in the last seven days. On the contrary, there has been an outflow. Within a week, 285 fighters escaped into Poland, Hungary and Romania, I hope without "Stingers" and "Javelins". Previous experience has shown that man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS) and ATGMs are spreading out
fairly quickly, along with the mercenaries who return home.

🔸️In general, the main objectives of the first phase of the operation have been achieved. The combat capabilities of Ukraine's Armed Forces have been significantly reduced, which allows us, once again, to concentrate our main efforts on achieving the main goal - the liberation of Donbass. In eight years, in the area of the so-called "joint forces operation", a defence belt has been prepared that is
deeply echeloned and well-fortified in engineering terms, consisting of a system of monolithic, long-term concrete structures. In this regard, in order to minimise casualties among the troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics, the conduct of offensive operations is preceded by a heavy fire attack on the enemy's strongholds and their reserves.

🔸️At the beginning of the special military operation, the LPR and DPR people's militias were confronted by a group of 59,300 people comprising the most combat-ready units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard and nationalist formations. As a result, Ukraine's security forces in the OOS zone lost about 16,000 people, or 26% of their total strength as of 24 February this year. More than 7,000 of them were irrecoverable losses. Replacing losses is prevented by isolating the Ukrainian grouping of troops in Donbass, taking control of railway stations and key road routes with firepower. The supply of missiles and ammunition, fuel and food to Ukrainian forces has been almost completely halted.

🔸️The field depots of missile and artillery weapons and ammunition, as well as fuel located directly in the area of the Joint Forces Operation are being hit To date 32 facilities have been destroyed, or 61% of the total. All weapons and military equipment, including foreign-made, seized by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the special military operation are handed over to the People's Republics. Already 113 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 138 "Javelin"and 67"NLAW" grenade launchers and other trophy weapons have been handed over Units of the People's Militia of the Lugansk People's Republic have liberated 93% of the republic's territory. Fighting is currently taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. The People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Rupublic controls 54% of the territory. The liberation of Mariupol continues. Units of the Russian Armed Forces together with the People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Republic are conducting an offensive to liberate settlements to the west of Donetsk. Unfortunately, there are casualties among our comrades-in-arms during the special military operation. As of today, 1,351 solders and officers have been killed and 3,825 wounded. All family support solutions will be taken over by the state, raising children up to higher education, full repayment of loans, housing solutions.

We receive a large number of appeals from Russian citizens wishing to take part in the special military operation to liberate Ukraine from Nazism. In addition, more than 23,000 foreigners from 37 countries have expressed their willingness to fight on the side of the people's republics. We offered the leadership of the LPR and DPR to accept this assistance, but they said they would defend
their land themselves. They have enough power and resources. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will continue to conduct a planned special military operation until the tasks set by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief have been completed. (https://z.mil.ru)

⚠️🚫 Crimes of the Ukrainian Nazis and the Armed Forces of Ukraine

A civilian was injured due to the shelling of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk by Ukrainian troops, the DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime (JCCC) reports. Earlier, the mission reported that Donetsk was shelled by Ukrainian troops on Friday morning, and three 122-mm rounds were fired at the city, (https://ria.ru)

The representative office of the Donetsk People's Republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired five shells with a caliber of 122 mm in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk. Fire was detected from the side of the armed formations of Ukraine in the direction of the settlement Pobeda – the city of Donetsk Kirovsky district. 5 122-mm shells were fired. Also, Ukrainian troops fired at Staromikhailivka. According to the representative office of the DPR, 20 120-mm mines were fired at the settlement, (https://www.m24.ru)

❗Exposure of disinformation

Ukrainian propaganda is spreading Information on the Internet that Russia plans the mass movement of Ukrainian citizens through the filtration camps. Allegedly refugees are to be sent to economically depressed regions of the country. Pro-Ukrainian telegram channels lied about the establishing of so-called "filtration camps" on the territory of the Russian Federation and the forced resettlement of Ukrainian citizens to Russia.

This Information is completely groundless refugees voluntarily leave the country and are accommodated on the territory of Russia. Comfortable conditions have been created for them. They are provided with timely humanitarian and social assistance.

It was the Ukrainian side that recently proposed the creation of concentration camps for captured Russians. Such a proposal was made by the adviser to the President Zelensky Alexei Arestovich. (https://xn--80aaenqccitej3b1b.xn--p1ai/)

Fake:
Some Ukrainian Telegram channels are spreading a rumour that Russian troops in Severodonetsk destroyed a food storage because they wanted to leave civilians without food.

Truth:
No food of any kind was stored in that particular warehouse for a long time. Ukrainian nationalists were using it as an ammunition depot. But such a disguise did not work – the building was destroyed.

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine #FakeNews
@mod_russia_en

Jeff Monson answered Arnold Schwarzenegger point by point why Russia needed to launch a special operation in Ukraine 👇

https://youtu.be/i6kP4g5Ng04

🎙 Statement of Russia's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in connection with the appeal of the UN Secretariat to ensure a ceasefire in Ukraine

💬 We took note of today’s statement by the UN Secretary-General calling on Russia to ensure a ceasefire in Ukraine for humanitarian operations.

We regret that in the same statement Antonio Guterres did not give any assessment of the actions of those members of the UN Security Council who on March 23 torpedoed the efforts of the Russian delegation to form conditions for the work of humanitarian workers on the ground that are binding for all parties to implement.

Once again, we remind of the content of the Russian draft of truly humanitarian resolution of the UN Security Council on Ukraine 👇

1) a call to establish a ceasefire and have humanitarian pauses to facilitate safe evacuation of civilians, as well as enabling unimpeded exit (free from any discrimination) from the territory of Ukraine to all those willing to leave;
2) a call to not attack critical infrastructure;
3) calls to not place heavy equipment in residential quarters and densely populated areas;
4) protection of humanitarian and medical personnel;
5) proper protection of the sick and wounded;
6) humane treatment of detainees;
7) protection of civilians, especially women and children.

☝️ We regret that the efforts of humanitarian workers in this country are becoming hostages to the geopolitical ambitions of the Western curators of Kiev.

We are still ready to cooperate with colleagues in the UN Security Council on the humanitarian track in Ukraine. We are open to discuss all the modalities. Daily humanitarian corridors are being open. The Russian Armed Forces guarantee safe evacuation through them to everyone who wishes to do so.

🎙 Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the outcomes of the European Council meeting in Brussels on March 24-25, 2022

💬 The results of the European Council’s meeting, held jointly with US leaders, reaffirmed the fact that the collective West needs Ukraine – a country that is completely controlled by Washington and in the grips of Russophobia – only as a geopolitical battering ram against Russia. This is why Ukrainian neo-Nazis are given money, weapons and ammunition which they use to kill civilians. They receive assurances of solidarity and unconditional support, and the cities destroyed by the neo-Nazis, whose residents are hiding from them in basements, are declared bastions of freedom and European values. However, the Kiev authorities’ mistaken bet is that the aggressive anti-Russian policy they are enthusiastically pursuing will hasten the day that they receive a “membership card” in the EU. Questions about Ukraine’s EU prospects are invariably answered with polite excuses.

The EU leaders’ attempts to assume the role of defenders of international law while accusing Russia of violating it are particularly inappropriate. As a reminder, in circumvention of the UN Security Council, the Western countries unleashed a series of military “humanitarian interventions” in former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and Syria and have been turning a blind eye to the genocide organised by Kiev in Donbass for many years now. With regard to “war crimes,” since 2014 Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened hundreds of criminal cases against the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the national battalions for the atrocities they have committed against civilians in Donbass.

The EU calls for Russia to provide humanitarian corridors in Ukraine are part of these attempts as well. Over the past weeks, the Russian Defence Ministry has been opening, on a daily basis, humanitarian corridors going in a variety of directions for civilians and Ukrainian military who have laid down their arms.

☝️ Brussels vows to impose more sanctions on Russia if necessary, failing to mention that only the United States will benefit from them, since it is profiting from the outflow of capital from the EU and increased exports of weapons and LNG at exorbitant prices to European markets. With their actions, the bureaucrats in Brussels are, in fact, undermining the EU countries’ economies, which they poorly understand to begin with. They are dooming Europe and everyday Europeans to the demolition of the existing socially oriented economic model and way of life amid skyrocketing prices for electricity and fuel, as well as cuts in social benefits in favour of military budgets, runaway inflation and mass unemployment.

As for the decision adopted by the European Council regarding the “reconstruction of a democratic Ukraine” and the establishment of a dedicated foundation towards this end, we consider it a belated decision. As we know, Ukraine's evolution towards democracy was suspended in February 2014, when an unconstitutional coup was carried out in Kiev at the behest of Western countries. Ukraine and its neighbours have been reaping the consequences for over eight straight years already. Now is the time for decisive measures to de-Nazify and demilitarise Ukraine, which is what the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are doing. We remain confident that once these measures have been fully implemented, the Ukrainian people will return to a peaceful and neighbourly path of development. The European Union, as well as its Western partners, has yet to realise the tragic consequences of flooding an aggressive neo-Nazi regime in central Europe with money and weapons.

ON US-FUNDED BIOLABS IN UKRAINE

For those who wish to study the issue closer - here's a collection of Russian Defense Ministry presentations (🇷🇺/🇬🇧), as well as statements made by Russian Foreign Ministry officials (🇬🇧) on US-funded biolabs in Ukraine and their activities

🔗Direct link: https://bit.ly/3wJ6uu4

💬 Russian MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova: The European Union supported the policy of discrimination against the people of Crimea by imposing restrictions to punish the people on the peninsula for making the democratic choice to be with Russia. These were the wrong people. Segregate them. This was the gist of their policy, even if they did not call it that way.

All these years, the EU couldn’t care less about water or human rights. Brussels never issued any statements warning Kiev against using water as war tactic.

(excerpt from weekly briefing of 24.03.22)

💬 Russian MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova: In the current circumstances of protecting people who have been subject to genocide, abuse, torture and oppression for eight years in Ukraine, the United States and its allies are hypocritically trying to feign righteous anger and cynically discussing alleged violation of international law – which they bombed to dust in 1999, repeating this “successful” experience multiple times in the 2000s. It is not their sermon to preach.

(excerpt from weekly briefing of 24.03.22)

🎙 FM Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the Serbian media, Moscow

📺 WATCH
📰 READ

Key points:

🔹 We are seeing unprecedented pressure as part of a general campaign, which some Western politicians call an all-out war against Russia where all means are justified.

🔹 This multi-ethnic self-reproducing bureaucracy with a seat in Brussels is trying to subjugate all countries without exception and concentrate all efforts to establishing rules and standards at the headquarters of the European Union, reducing to a minimum what its member countries can do on their own.

🔹 We are seeing attempts by the US, the EU and NATO to impose their hegemony on others, not only in the Balkans but also in the rest of the world –virtually everywhere else. I am convinced that most of the countries around the world realise that this is the path to a deadlock.

🔹 The United States has subdued the entire Europe. As for democracies and autocracies, this “community of democracies” represented by the US, NATO and the EU has become an integral whole (under US command). It is an overt autocracy if not a dictatorship as regards other members of the international community.

🔹Isolation doesn’t exist and is brought up exclusively by those who, mentally and ideologically, have resigned themselves to the inevitability of a Western dictatorship on the global stage. This dictatorship is supported primarily by the West itself which is loath to lose its positions. The West has been the world's dominant player for over 500 years now. A different era – the forming of a multipolar international order – is now here.

🔹 The West is trying to showcase the so-called “isolation” in which the Russian Federation allegedly found itself by presenting the mathematical results of the UN vote. We are aware of how they get these results and the kind of shameless blackmail the developing countries are subjected to, and personal threats against the representatives of these countries at the UN or other organisations. For us, this means only one thing: the United States and the Western countries that are playing along with this crude and undisguised blackmail are themselves afraid of being isolated.

🔹 Our Western colleagues did not give a damn (excuse me for this expression) about the sovereign equality of states or international law, generally speaking. They no longer use the latter term. They are saying now that all countries must follow the laws of a rules-based order. The rules mean only one thing – they are established by the West. Everyone else must obey. This is a typical example of autocracy and dictatorship that uses an ultimatum.

🔹 Isolation is the lot of those who couldn’t imagine their life without so-called “Western values” and without the welcoming embrace or at least a more or less warm reception in the West. Meanwhile, there are much more important things in life. They are a loadstar for the overwhelming majority of states and civilisations on this planet.

🔹 It is necessary to respect each other rather than impose one’s pseudo values in an aggressive manner. These have only existed for a short time. They appeared with the development of neo-liberalism and are used to discontinue millennia-old cultures and civilisations. This path is a dead-end. These attempts will continue for a while, but they are doomed in the historical perspective.

🎙 Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s answer to a media question about a video depicting how the Ukrainian military is humiliating Russian POWs

❓There are video clips on the internet showing how fighters from the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) humiliate Russian POWs and they record their murder. What do the defenders of human rights in the Council of Europe and the OSCE ODIHR say about this?

💬 Maria Zakharova: They remain silent. They don’t react in any way to these war crimes and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law. Russophobia blinds them.

Nobody in Strasbourg has raised the issue of expelling Ukraine from the Council of Europe even though there are plenty reasons to do so. ODIHR Director Matteo Mecacci is focusing his anger on Russia alone. Moral and ethical principles and political integrity have been lost. What can we discuss with these institutions?

This silence means complicity in the committed atrocities. Complicity is also a crime.

Read in full

💬 Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine:

❗️This list of problems caused by Kiev is expanding. There is an increased danger of floating Ukrainian mines at sea. Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey have already faced or are about to face this perilous problem. In this context, let me underscore that Russian armed forces pose no threat to freedom of civil navigation.

👉 Washington and its allies have a choice now. They can choose to stop fueling Ukrainian crisis, delivering weapons to the Kiev regime, and provoking a global food crisis and hunger in a number of states.

Read in full

💬 Right of reply by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy to the representative of the United States:

❓You surely know who Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych are. They collaborated with Nazis, took part in killings of Jews, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians. If you doubt it, ask the Poles.

Russia-Ukraine Negotiations – ‘constructive’ framework revealed

Russia’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has disclosed key points of Istanbul negotiations:

▪️Ukraine is ready to become a neutral state, unable to own nuclear weapons, with internationally guaranteed independence

▪️Guarantees will not be extended to Donbass region and Russia owned Crimean Peninsula - which would make Kiev formally abandon idea to annex them militarily

▪️Kiev proposed to include in agreement that Moscow would not be against Ukraine’s entry into EU

▪️Ukraine would be unable to have any military presence - including NATO and Russian forces

▪️Kiev is requesting for final treaty to be formalised by Russian and Ukrainian heads of states

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‘De-escalation Does Not Mean Ceasefire’: Chief Russian Negotiator Talks to RT

The Head of the Russian delegation for negotiations with Ukraine Vladimir Medinsky has said that the announced de-escalation of the ‘special operation’ near Kiev and Chernigov does not equal a ceasefire.

He called the de-escalation a first “reciprocal” step following the Istanbul talks, with the potential second being a meeting between presidents Putin and Zelensky, where they would formalise a peace treaty.

Medinsky also pointed out that the treaty itself is still a long way ahead, and that Moscow is yet to officially respond to Kiev’s proposals.

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