A misunderstood Russia

Russia has repeatedly declared its readiness to facilitate intra-Ukrainian dialogue process without preconditions.

I recently came across an extremely biased article, “Arm Ukraine or Surrender” by Ben Judah published in the International New York Times (September 1, 2014), a supplement of the esteemed The Express Tribune and could not leave it without a reaction.

Russia has persistently been advocating the multipolar world order with the supremacy of law, equal rights and mutually beneficial cooperation being its cornerstones. Unfortunately, certain countries oppose these principles in practice by pursuing a unilateral agenda.

The severe crisis in Ukraine became an aftermath of this strategy. Initially, the intention of the outside powers to make Ukraine artificially choose between the European Union and Russia aggravated the simmering internal political crisis in Ukraine. An armed unconstitutional coup took place in Kiev in February 2014 with the help of powerful political, financial and ideological support from the outside which was a clear violation of the Ukraine’s sovereignty.

There was no due reaction of the international community to the fact of non-compliance by the Ukrainian opposition with the agreement on the settlement of the situation dated February 21, 2014, that was signed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of France, Germany and Poland. This document actually became a disguise to overthrow the legitimate president of Ukraine and illegally seize power with the connivance of the European guarantors of the agreement. The coup in Ukraine was not given adequate international evaluation by global bodies.

The February 21 agreement was trampled upon virtually the following day. Instead of fulfilling its obligations and establishing a government of national unity, the opposition violently ousted the president and announced the creation of a “government of winners”.

In those dire conditions, the people of Crimea acted in strict compliance with the international law and democratic procedures. Without any external pressure, they exercised their right to self-determination set forth in the UN Charter by holding a referendum and declaring independence. The article is stuffed up with unfounded allegations and conflicting assertions for the sole purpose of persuading largely unaware public to support the Kiev’s military operation in the Southeast of Ukraine. Besides constant repetition of the same allegations the author does not give evidence to substantiate his words while keeping deliberately silent about efforts taken by Russia to contribute to the peaceful resolution of the civil conflict in Ukraine.

Therefore, this article shall be regarded as a sheer anti-Russian propaganda which misleads the Pakistani public about real Russian foreign policy principles and objectives. It has been two months since Russia invited international observers to the checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border to prove that no illegal items are smuggled to Ukraine. Since their deployment the only incidents they have witnessed were intermittent shellings of the Russian territory by the Ukrainian artillery. It is worth mentioning that our frontier troops never fired in retaliation.

Russia has provided food and shelter to countless refugees fleeing the areas of hostilities. We spare no effort to help these people, most of whom are women and children, to recover and forget the scourge of war.

We also cannot shut our eyes to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Southeast of Ukraine with the civilians running out of food, drinking water and medicines as a result of hostilities.

During the course of the conflict, hundreds of Ukrainian troops have crossed the Russian border more than once while facing defeat by self-defence forces of the Southeast of Ukraine. It has become a routine that Russia sends those soldiers back home to their families without any delay.

Russia has repeatedly declared its readiness to facilitate substantial intra-Ukrainian dialogue process without preconditions and in any framework that would recognise the right of people from Donetsk and Lugansk. Despite the growing reluctance among people of the Southeast to have any relations with the abusive government in Kiev, we still hope that the crisis can be settled and peace will prevail.

To conclude, it is impossible to get a true and fair view of recent developments in Ukraine unless all the suffering of the people of Donetsk and Lugansk from the Kiev-led punitive operation as well as efforts made by Russia to contribute to the peaceful resolution of the crisis are taken into account.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2014.

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