Report 53. Lavrov: Ukraine should have neutral, nuclear-free, non-aligned and demilitarized status as well as guarantees for its security

 

April 30th, 2022

1. Lavrov’s explanation of the current situation in Ukraine and the world

Washington’s concept of a US-centric world is a neocolonialist project based on racism and American exceptionalism, Moscow believes; the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, as well as the long-running Ukraine crisis, is a direct result of the West’s push to create a unipolar world, one which involved NATO’s unabated eastward expansion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told China’s Xinhua News Agency in an interview published on April 30,2022.

“The U.S. and NATO have always seen Ukraine as an instrument of containing Russia,” the minister said, adding that the reasons that eventually prompted Moscow to launch its military operation in Ukraine stem from a years-long Western policy that included stirring up anti-Russian sentiment among Ukrainians and forcing them to make a “false choice” between the West and Russia.

Protecting citizens of Donbass from three Ukrainians aggressions from 2014 that led to 14,000 killed and 34,000 injured, banning the use of Russian language in that region were the second and the third Russian reasons to stop the Ukrainian policy of genocide sanctioned by Kiev rulers.

It was the West that first instigated and then supported an anti-constitutional coup d’état in Kiev in 2014” which gave rise to an internal Ukrainian conflict the USA and its allies never tried to resolve, Lavrov said, as he accused Washington and its allies of “fostering” Kiev’s “aggressive anti-Russian course” and “pushing nationalists towards a military solution” of the standoff in the Donbass.

Washington and Brussels brushed off Russia’s proposals for security guarantees in Europe in December 2021, the minister said, adding that Moscow was left with no choice but to launch its military operation to protect the people of the Donbass, following a request from the leaders of the two republics Russia had recognized.

Russia is interested in a “peaceful, free, neutral, prosperous and friendly Ukraine,” the minister has explained, adding that Moscow wishes to restore “centuries-long cultural, economic and family ties between Russians and Ukrainians.”

According to Lavrov, the document debated at the bilateral talks should include provisions on Ukraine’s “neutral, nuclear-free, non-aligned and demilitarized status” as well as guarantees on Ukraine’s security. However, the foreign minister claimed the Western policy of “incitement” is impeding the peace process. “They [the USA and its allies] de facto encourage Kiev to fight [Russia] to the last man by pumping [Ukraine] full of arms and sending their mercenaries” to its territory, he said.

If the USA and NATO were indeed interested in resolving the crisis in Ukraine, they would have understood that the Ukrainian people don’t need Stingers or Javelins so much as humanitarian assistance, the minister noted.

What is happening right now is not a “new Cold War” but continued attempts by Washington and its allies to impose a “US-centric model of the world” on other nations, Lavrov said. The USA and its allies seek to erode the UN-based world order and replace it with their own “rules-based order.” Ukraine has not been the only place in the world where the USA and its allies sought to pursue this goal, the minister noted, citing the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia in 1999, the 2003 Iraq invasion, and the Syrian crisis as examples of this “destructive policy.”

2. Humanitarian situation

The Russian Federation's Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, in co-operation with the authorized federal executive authorities, continues to carefully record the continuing egregious facts of the inhumane treatment of civilians by Kiev authorities: The Ukrainian armed formations, using civilians as human shield, continue to use civilian infrastructure to build strongholds and deploy heavy weaponry:

1) In Svнatogorsk, Donetsk People's Republic, militants of nationalist battalions have deployed artillery mounts and MLRS on the territory of the monastery of the Holy Dormition Svyatogorsk Lavra. More than 100 civilians (clergy, novices, refugees) are in the monastery;

2) in Kramatorsk, Donetsk People's Republic, neo-Nazis have set up firing points in apartment buildings on Heroes of Ukraine and Korolev streets on the upper floors and residents are forcibly detained in their flats.

Furthermore, according to reliable information, the Kiev regime has prepared in advance another sophisticated provocation to discredit the Russian Armed Forces before the international community. An artillery battery (consisting of three D-30 howitzers) has been deployed near the Piskunovka water intake in the Donetsk People's Republic by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to provoke retaliatory fire from the Russian Armed Forces at the water intake, whose destruction would leave 27 settlements with a total population of over 15,000 without water supply. The Kiev authorities plan to use this cynical provocation in the near future to accuse Russian servicemen of alleged atrocities against civilians, followed by extensive coverage in the Ukrainian and Western media.

Such actions by Kiev once again demonstrate an inhuman attitude towards the fate of its own citizens and show a complete disregard for all norms of morality and international humanitarian law.

Despite all the difficulties and obstacles imposed by the Ukrainian side, over the past day, without the participation of Kiev, 21,972 people were evacuated from dangerous areas, 2,693 of them children. In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 1,043,843 people have already been evacuated, of which 190,329 are children. The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 135,664 personal vehicles including 2,083 per day.

More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centres continue to operate in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and are fully equipped with recreational facilities and hot meals. The refugees are treated individually and provided with qualified medical and psychological assistance. Families are promptly provided with housing, citizens are employed, and children are provided with places in schools and kindergartens.

Ukrainian citizens living in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and to areas controlled by the Russian Armed Forces in the Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kharkov and Kherson regions are wishing to be evacuated to the Russian Federation; the database contains 2,753,884 such appeals from 2,132 settlements in Ukraine.

Ukrainian nationalists continue to hold 90 foreign nationals from 5 countries hostage as "human shield".

The Ukrainian authorities have stopped paying pensions and salaries to state employees in the Kherson region after they shelled Kherson by Tochka-U. Russian troops began delivering humanitarian aid to the residents of Kherson.

3. Distribution of the humanitarian aid

Federal executive authorities, together with the subjects of the Russian Federation, various public organizations, patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

More than 22,000 tonnes of basic necessities and food kits, including baby food and life-saving medicines, have been prepared at collection points.

Since March 2nd, 16,489.1 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 933 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 6 actions in Zaporozhye region, as well as in the DPR, during which 282 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.

On April 29, seven humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Kharkov and Zaporozye regions, in Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, during which 396.8 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.

4. Commercial navigation at the Black Sea

75 foreign vessels from 17 countries remain blocked in 6 Ukrainian ports, including Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhniy.

The threat of shelling and high mine danger created by official Kiev in its internal waters and territorial sea prevents vessels from safely leaving the ports and reaching the open sea.

In confirmation of this, the Russian Federation is opening daily from 08:00 to 19:00 (Moscow time) a humanitarian corridor, which is a safe lane south-west of Ukraine's territorial sea, 80 nautical miles long and 3 nautical miles wide. Detailed information in English and Russian on the modus operandi of the maritime humanitarian corridor is broadcast daily every 15 minutes on VHF radio on 14 and 16 international channels in English and Russian.

At the same time, the Kiev authorities continue to avoid engaging with representatives of states and ship-owning companies to resolve the issue of ensuring the safe passage of foreign vessels to the assembly area.

The danger to navigation from Ukrainian mines drifting off their anchors along the coasts of Black Sea states remains.

The Russian Federation is taking a full range of comprehensive measures to ensure the safety of civilian navigation in the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

5. Massacre in Odessa: tragic anniversary

 It will soon be eight years since the terrible tragedy in Odessa. As a reminder for all those international players who talk about the humanitarian disaster and human rights violations, and use the word “genocide” on a daily basis, on May 2, 2014, Ukrainian nationalists, acting with blatant cruelty, came down on their fellow citizens protesting against the nationalist radical forces that came to power as a result of the Western-inspired armed coup in Kiev in February 2014. These people were collecting signatures for a referendum on the federalisation of Ukraine and granting the Russian language the status of a state language. Forty-eight people were burned alive, died from carbon monoxide poisoning, or fell to their death from the upper floors of the House of Trade Unions which was set on fire by the nationalists.

Some have been killed on the ground by metal rods. A pregnant woman has been strangled at the table by a telephone cord.

This case has not been investigated by two previous and the current Kiev regimes. Nobody has been punished.

6. NATO and non-NATO states are sending more and more arms to Ukraine

Russia expressed its displeasure over the statement made the other day by British Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey about Ukraine’s strikes against military targets in Russia being “completely legitimate.” There have been voices in favor of severing diplomatic relations with the UK. The argument was that the West is openly encouraging Kiev to attack Russia using weapons supplied by NATO countries. Kiev took this as a call to action. Over the past several weeks, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have shelled the border areas of the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, and Voronezh regions resulting in casualties and destroyed property.

In Moscow’ view, while stockpiling Ukraine with deadly heavy weapons the Euro-Atlantic allies are increasing the risk of the conflict spreading further. Moreover, this self-appointed “support group” for the Kiev regime is violating many important international commitments, including:

1) The EU’s “common position” prohibits the export of arms if they create the obvious risk of use for domestic reprisal in a recipient country, or will lead to the violation of international humanitarian law, or facilitate the emergence or aggravation of armed conflict. So, what about your commitments? These are not commitments that the EU has given to someone else.

2)  The EU’s brainchild – the International Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires its participants to objectively assess the potential that any arms exported would “contribute to or undermine peace and security” or could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law, as well as acts of violence against women and children. This treaty bans the transfer of conventional arms or where there is knowledge that the items will be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians. This matches exactly the list of crimes being committed every day by Ukrainian neo-Nazis and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which they lead.

3) Many international commitments aimed at preventing the illegal trafficking of precision weapons are crudely violated. This applies to UN General Assembly Resolution 62/40 of 2007 on the “Prevention of the illicit transfer and unauthorised access to and use of man-portable air defence systems” and the 2003 elements of arms control over these weapons, as agreed to under the Wassenaar Arrangement over conventional arms export controls.

4) The Euro-Atlantic allies are crudely violating the long-standing international practice of strict observance of the provisions of end user certificates. One of them bans the re-export of arms by an importer state without the written consent of the exporter state or the owner of the relevant technological intellectual property. The US-led countries of the collective West bear all responsibility for these reckless violations of their commitments on arms transfer control.

Ukrainian military personnel are receiving American training in Europe, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby has revealed April 28th.. He announced that the USA has commenced training with the Ukrainian Armed Forces on key systems at the U.S military installations in Germany and in other European countries. Ukrainian troops are learning to operate artillery, radars and armored vehicles.

5. Where are the rest of weapons supplied to Ukraine by the West?

According to the results of research conducted annually by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Ukraine is confidently among the top ten largest suppliers of weapons to combat areas around the globe. For more than thirty years of the country's history, stable illegal arms sales markets with well-established logistics have been formed. The organizers of illegal schemes are firmly entrenched in senior positions of the SBU or Security Service of Ukraine and in criminal circles of Ukraine.

In 2017, Amnesty International reported that the Ukrainian state-owned special exporter of military products “Ukrinmash” illegally supplies weapons to South Sudan through the UAE. The volume of exports was measured in thousands of small arms, mortars and RPGs. Investigators of the project to expose organized crime and corruption have uncovered a criminal scheme for redirecting Ukrainian weapons through Poland, Slovakia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania to the markets of Africa and the Middle East. This activity was carried out by the “Techimpex” company registered in Kiev, associated with the British company “S-Profit.”

Despite the exposure, through the same "Techimpex", the Kiev regime is now fueling the flow of arms exports. On March 29, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, guided by national legislation, formed a list of "surplus" weapons to be sold abroad. It included tanks, armored vehicles, machine guns, rifles, grenades and bulletproof vests.

On April 19, CNN released an article expressing doubt about the use of weapons supplied to Ukraine by the Kiev regime for their intended purpose and stating that the White House does not have a mechanism for controlling the movement of weapons supplied to Ukraine. The publication recognizes that the United States and NATO countries to a large extent, they depend on the information provided by the Ukrainian authorities, that is, only such information that will support the arguments in favor of allocating additional assistance.

The Biden administration, under the pretext of the need to increase the combat power of Kiev, is ready to consciously take the risk of weapons, including heavy weapons, falling to third countries and armed groups of a terrorist orientation.

It is noteworthy that the West, positioning the possession of a full package of data on the position and condition of Russian forces on the territory of Ukraine, is experiencing difficulties in controlling the Ukrainian side. Or is it deliberately exposing an imaginary lack of information to the public? Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed that he has no information about the location and use of supplied weapons by Ukraine and suggested that "he will never know exactly to what extent they use it."

The U.S. defense and foreign policy analyst Jordan Cowen justified the inevitability of getting some of the weapons on the black market. As an example of the development of events, he cited the transfer of weapons of the US army to the Taliban during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

A well-known American TV presenter on the FOX-News Channel, Tucker Carlson, took the initiative to audit Zelensky's financial activities, especially in terms of income received in the distribution of funds allocated by the United States and Europe as aid to Ukraine during the war.

The formation of orders for the number and types of weapons that Western countries subsequently supply Ukraine with, as far as possible, is completely at the mercy of the Kiev authorities. Western experts express deep doubt about the possession of the same authority with data on the real needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which , in the absence of control, poses a threat of directing the flow of weapons for sale by "arms barons".

One of the evidences of capital growth among the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the SBU is an increase in demand for luxury cars, which are supposedly necessary to help the army. Only since April 20, 14,300 passenger cars have been imported to Ukraine, a significant part of which belongs to the elite category, according to the Ukrainian online edition Strana.ua . Poland, Slovakia and Romania, struck by the pace of updating the personal fleet of representatives of the belligerent side, decided to reduce the number of checkpoints of supplied vehicles.

So, too many Western weapons sent to Ukraine is destroyed by Russian troops. But some of them disappeared. Where they will appear? In terrorist groups and in the hands of criminal gangs?

7. Critical remarks on the UN High Commissioner’s statement

Russia made critical remarks on a statement made by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on numerous cases where international humanitarian law was violated, and on war crimes in Ukraine.

Moscow expressed its regret that the statements made by the chief UN human rights official are far from the standards of objectivity and impartiality that all United Nations employees, especially at such a high level, must uphold. It has noted the statement’s obvious unfounded accusatory imbalance with regard to Russia, in line with the politicized statements we hear from Western countries. It is obvious that the High Commissioner and the Office entrusted to her have not been able to comprehend and analyse the situation in an independent and balanced manner, relying on irrefutable facts and evidence, including those provided by the Russian side. They have used speculations, fake stories and staged footage as an argument and a foundation on which they make their case.

Russia noted that Michelle Bachelet, in her statement, still casually mentions the crimes committed by the Ukrainian military and nationalists against their own civilian population. However, the real scale of such crimes, as openly evidenced by Ukrainian residents who suffered from them, is monstrous. There is irrefutable documentary evidence that proves their crimes. The Ukrainian armed forces and nationalist battalions did not comply with the requirements of international humanitarian law during the eight years of the conflict in Donbass. They are not complying with them now either. I know that Michelle Bachelet was not yet there in 2014 (she took office much later), but she could clarify what her predecessors and the Office had been doing to attract the international community’s attention, and to alleviate the suffering those people endured for eight years. It is quite possible now, with all the attention riveted on that region. Look what the UN Office has done so far. Have any statements been made on this scale? Russia regularly provided the respective materials, publicly through diplomatic channels. Russia convened conferences, held events, including at the UN headquarters in New York, and in Geneva.

8. Former members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine detained in Donetsk and Lugansk

Competent bodies of the LPR and DPR are amassing evidence of the illegal activities by some members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine. The facts of systemic cooperation of some observers with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and security services are a source of special concern.

It is reported that SMM members provided them and foreign intelligence agents with information on the location of the people’s militia units of both republics, as well as other data that could damage the security of the republics and its civilians. It transpired that they used for this purpose the SMM cameras designed to monitor ceasefire compliance and the fulfilment of the sides’ commitments to keep equipment and heavy weapons in depots. Several former SMM employees from among local residents have been detained by the investigative bodies of the republics and are giving testimony.

All international personnel of the mission was evacuated in early March 2022.

9. Situation on the battlefield

Armed Forces of Ukraine continues shelling of the DPR and the LPR – deliberately targeting houses and social infrastructure with heavy weapons. Total 8 civilians have been killed, 28 injured.

High-precision, long-range air-based weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed the production buildings of the Artyom missile and space enterprise in Kiev. High-precision long-range sea-based Kalibr missiles have destroyed 3 traction power substations near Fastov, Krasnosyolka and Polonnoe railway hubs.  High-precision air-based missiles of the Russian Aerospace Forces have have hit 10 Ukrainian military assets. Among them: 9 areas of manpower and military equipment concentration, as well as 1 ammunition depot near Illichovka.

Operational-tactical and army aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces have hit 112 military assets of Ukraine. These include 2 command posts, 11 strong points, 95 areas of manpower and military equipment concentration, as well as 4 missile and artillery weapons depots in Pokrovskoe and Gorokhovskoe.

Missile troops have hit 13 targets during the night. 1 Ukrainian Tochka-U missile launcher, from which a strike was launched yesterday against residential areas in Kherson city, has been identified and destroyed near Gorokhovskoe, Nikolaev Region.

In addition, 6 areas of Ukrainian manpower and military equipment concentration and 3 artillery batteries of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and 1 division of the AFU multiple rocket launchers were destroyed.

Artillery units have carried out 975 firing missions during the night. The neutralised targets are 21 command posts, 69 strong points, 763 areas of manpower and military equipment, and 107 artillery positions.

The attacks have resulted in the elimination of more than 280 nationalists and up to 38 armoured and motor vehicles.

Russian air defence means have shot down 13 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over Redkodub, Shiykovka, Nevskoe, Malaya Kamyshevakha, Stepnoy Yar, Petrovskoe, Zelenoe Pole, Bukovo, Panteleimonovka, Makeevka, Chernobaevka, including 1 Bayraktar-TB2 at the Russian-Ukrainian border near Novovodyannoe. Also, Ukrainian Smertch MLRS was shot down near Kamenka.


In total, from February 24th, 142 aircraft and 111 helicopters, 634 unmanned aerial vehicles, 278 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,638 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 304 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,175 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,467 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation.


According to the Russian Defence Ministry, over 6,800 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries have flocked to Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation. Most of them are citizens of Poland, the United States, Canada, Romania, Great Britain and Georgia.          

10. Sweden and Finland: What are the consequences of their joining NATO?

From May 16 to May 20, during a meeting in Helsinki, the leaders of Finland and Sweden intend to apply for membership in NATO. As promised by the current Secretary General of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, they will be accepted intoit as full members fairly quickly and without any special formalities. It is quite possible that this will happen at the summit of the bloc, which will be held in June this year in Madrid.

The obsession of the military-political leadership of these countries to abandon their long-standing neutral status, and then become part of this largest and most dangerous military alliance, did not arise as a result of Russia's special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. Such an idea has been wandering for many years in the most radical and militaristic part of Swedish and Finnish society, but the negative attitude towards its implementation of the overwhelming majority of citizens of the two named states, as shown by public opinion polls conducted in them, did not allow Stockholm and Helsinki to decide to join the ranks of the transatlantic solidarity alliance.

Sweden and Finland have maintained the closest military ties with the alliance for many years. Their close military-delegation exchange and military-technical cooperation took place with him. In their armed forces, organizational and managerial and operational-combat instructions and NATO standards were implemented. They took part in the military exercises of the bloc.

Sweden shares with the countries of the transatlantic alliance space and ground intelligence data collected at the Esrange center, which is located near the city of Kiruna in the north of the country.

Stockholm has already supplied 6,000 AT-4 anti-tank grenade launchers to the Kiev ultra-nationalist regime, produced in cooperation with American weapons manufacturers.

Finland provides its territory for testing modern NATO strike and reconnaissance drones. The Finnish leadership has ordered 64 F-35A fighter-bombers in the United States, certified for the delivery of the latest American tactical nuclear weapons in the form of new-generation adjustable air-dropped nuclear bombs, like B61-12 with a maximum 50 kt nuclear yield.

Leading Western experts believe that the main reason for the intensification of efforts to integrate Sweden and Finland into NATO is also unprecedented pressure from Washington. According to Associate professor of the University of Helsinki Johan Backman, it is the USA and other leading NATO countries are pulling Stockholm and Helsinki into the North Atlantic alliance.

In the Finnish printed and electronic media, a pro-Ukrainian military psychosis is deliberately cultivated, aimed at the formation of aggressive Russophobia among the population. On April 26 of this year, the deputy from the Social Democratic Party of Finland, Erkki Tuomioja, said that the national media constantly escalate the fear of an imminent invasion by Russia. Despite the extremely low interest of Finns in both the conflict and the history of Ukraine as a whole, the streets of cities and social networks are overflowing with national Ukrainian symbols.

The Finnish leadership, for reasons of "European solidarity", supports the supply of arms and military equipment by the European Union to Ukraine.

The Finnish state broadcaster YLE has distributed survey data without specifying the affiliation of social groups, their location and coverage of the studied audience, according to which up to 80 percent of the population allegedly support the country's membership in NATO. On March 20, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said that a referendum on the country's accession to the alliance, they say, is not needed, since opinion polls show that the majority of Finns support this idea.

At the same time, Finland's initiative runs counter to Helsinki's earlier commitments under a number of international treaties.

In particular, according to the Aland Convention of 1921, which enshrines the demilitarized status of the Aland Islands, the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, which limits the composition and strength of the Finnish armed forces, the treaty "On the Foundations of Relations between the Russian Federation and Finland" of 1992, defining obligations about the non-provision of its territory to third countries for attack. Finland's accession to NATO will lead to a revision of the Russian-Finnish lease agreement until 2063 of the Saimaa Canal, which is the only waterway existing between the Saimaa Lakes network and the Gulf of Finland.

In pursuit of illusory security guarantees, Stockholm and Helsinki are destroying with their own hands the architecture of European security built after the Second World War, the effectiveness of which has been confirmed by decades of peaceful and good-neighborly relations between Sweden and Finland with the Russian Federation. The entry of these two Northern European states into the transatlantic military alliance will increase Russophobic sentiments.

The expected admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO will undoubtedly put them in front of the need to participate in dangerous military operations of the alliance's armed forces far beyond their borders, and will also lead to a significant increase in their military budget. There is no doubt that NATO military bases will be mushroomed on the Swedish and Suomi soil or NATO military will use their local ones constantly without getting a special permission.

Both of these countries will also dramatically lower their sovereignty and military-political independence, as well as modify their foreign policy in a militarized way.

 


Written by Vladimir P. Kozin 

30.04.2022
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