For the record

This article is a refutation of an article published in these pages (‘State of a failed promise’, August 24). Published on Ukraine's Independence Day, the article is a blatant display of Russian disinformation. It distorts facts, manipulates language, and perpetuates the Kremlin's false narrative about the Russia-Ukraine war.

We express our disappointment that the article was published, potentially misleading readers. Therefore, we are compelled to provide a brief clarification on the most important matters. Is Ukraine in trouble? The writer of the article feigns concern, claiming Ukraine is depopulated and in ruins, blaming the Ukrainian government. While Ukraine is indeed suffering, the primary cause is the large-scale, brutal war Russia is waging against our country.

War or not war? Russia euphemistically calls its aggression against Ukraine a "special military operation”. To understand the reality of the situation, we need only refer to the definition of aggression as laid out in UN General Assembly Resolution 3314, adopted on December 14, 1974. It becomes evident that all points of the resolution apply to the Russia-Ukraine war.

The ‘Banderite’ myth: The article attempts to discredit the Ukrainian government and people by labeling them as "Banderites" and accusing them of erasing Russian culture. This is a primitive Kremlin tactic to dehumanize Ukrainians and justify its aggression. The claim of forced "Ukrainization" upon the Russian-speaking population is equally absurd. Ukraine is a multicultural nation that has historically respected the rights of its minorities, including the use of minority languages until Russia weaponized this very issue to justify its invasion.

Does Ukraine violate international law? The egregious violator of international law is Russia. Since 2014, Russia has violated 407 bilateral agreements with Ukraine and 80 international acts, including the UN Charter, numerous UN conventions, the Helsinki Accords, the Budapest Memorandum, and bilateral treaties.

Specifically, the 1997 Russia-Ukraine Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership, as well as the 2003 Treaty on the Russian-Ukrainian border, explicitly recognized Ukraine's territorial integrity, including Crimea. In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Russia agreed to "respect the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine" and to "refrain from the threat of force or its use against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine."

Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent full-scale invasion in 2022 demonstrate a complete disregard for these agreements.

The real reasons for the war: The Russian propaganda narrative that Ukraine's desire to join Nato provoked Russia's invasion crumbles under scrutiny. This argument confuses cause and effect.

Ukraine has never been part of “Nato expansion”. In fact, Ukraine declared itself a non-aligned state in 2010 and signed the Kharkiv Pact with Russia in the same year, extending Russia's lease on naval facilities in Crimea until 2042. This clearly demonstrates that Nato's presence in Ukraine was not a realistic possibility, let alone a justification for Russia's actions, for decades to come.

Ukraine was never a candidate for Nato membership, nor had it received an invitation to join, even today, after 2.5 years of war. Therefore, attributing Russia's invasion of Ukraine to Nato expansion is factually inaccurate and deliberately distorts reality.

It is also important to emphasize that Ukraine was not and could not be a threat to Russia because it was much smaller and less powerful. It is somewhat ridiculous to hear Russian propaganda attempting to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the grounds of an alleged security threat posed by a smaller, non-nuclear state to a significantly larger nuclear power.

In February 2014, when the Russian aggression started, Ukraine had a neutral status since 2010. As the non-aligned status did not prevent Russian aggression, Ukraine was forced to change its priorities. Russia's aggressive actions – the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the intervention in eastern Ukraine forced Ukraine to seek closer ties with Nato, not the other way around.

The only motives for the war against Ukraine were to annex territory and destroy the Ukrainian state. Ukraine is waging an existential, defensive war in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Was Russia's goal to protect the predominantly Russian population of eastern Ukraine? Russia has falsely accused Ukraine of committing human rights abuses against Russian-speaking people for many years, without providing any credible evidence for such claims.

In the article, the writer has named the protection of the Russian population in Ukraine as the main goal of Russia’s invasion. However, the reality is the opposite. As a result of Russia's invasion, and indiscriminate missile and artillery shelling of Ukraine, thousands of Russian-speaking people have been killed, and millions more have become refugees or IDPs.

Is the president of Ukraine ‘illegitimate’? Russia is the only country in the world obsessed with the issue of the legitimacy of the Ukrainian president, which is determined by law and constitution which states that the powers of the president end on the day when the next president takes office. Ukraine’s law ‘on the legal regime of martial law’ states that elections cannot be held during martial law. Elections in Ukraine cannot be held precisely because of the war unleashed by Russia and because of the occupation of part of Ukrainian territories by Russia. There are no legal grounds to doubt the legitimacy of the president of Ukraine.

There are many reasons to doubt the legitimacy of the Russian leader. The illegal organization by Russia of ‘elections’, including presidential ones, in March 2024 in the temporarily occupied sovereign territories of Ukraine, parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and the city of Sevastopol was accompanied by threats, blackmail, and coercion of millions of Ukrainian citizens who live in those territories or were forcibly relocated to the territory of Russia.

It is also pertinent to ask the Russians how their president has been in office for almost 25 years, while the Russian constitution has always set clear limits. Isn't this manipulation by the law?

Direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia? The article concludes by calling for direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, placing the onus of peace in Ukraine while conveniently ignoring the aggressor in the Ukrainian house. While Ukraine has consistently expressed its willingness to engage in meaningful negotiations based on President Zelenskyy’s formula, principles of the UN Charter and international law, Russia continues to escalate the conflict.

The writer is a Ukrainian diplomat.