27 September 2022
Mr.President,
As you know, referenda on accession to Russia have been held in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The official results will be announced in the next few days. This is the long-awaited development for the people of Donbas. It should bring peace to their lands, which they have not seen for eight years. For all that time the population of those areas has lived in constant fear for their lives. Throughout those years, bombardments of the DPR and LPR were killing about ten people a week, including children. As for the residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, they will finally be able to know for sure that no one is going to deprive them of their right to speak Russian and have their children educated in the Russian language. They will know for sure that on the Victory Day, which is a sacred holiday to us all, they will be able to pay tribute to those who fought against Nazis to liberate their lands rather than those who collaborated with them and committed heinous crimes.
Starting from 2014, Kiev deliberately adopted a course towards physical extermination of the “unwanted” people of DPR and LPR, by the way Ukrainian nationals, with support of the European Union and the United States. They did not stir a finger to make the Kiev authorities observe the Minsk Agreements, that guaranteed safety of the people of the Donbas republics, and their dignified future within Ukraine. Let me remind that the Minsk Agreements envisaged a ceasefire, a direct dialogue of Kiev with Donbas, granting a special status to Donbas by means of adopting a new constitution. The authorities in Kiev cynically infringed all those agreements, and violated UNSC resolution 2202. Western delegations not only failed to condemn it. On the contrary, they secretly supported that.
Had it not been for this criminal connivance and hypocrisy, had the West made it protégés in Kiev observe basic human rights, respect its people and their right to life, there would not have been any need for our special military operation.
Ukrainian authorities openly proclaimed the Russian and Russian-speaking residents of those territories to be “inhumans”, “species”. In one of his interviews in August 2021, Vladimir Zelensky advised all those who consider themselves Russians and love the Russian language to “leave Ukraine for Russia” for the benefit of their children. Now the people living in Donbas, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions are following his cynical recommendation. They are turning back home, and with them they are taking the lands where their ancestors lived for centuries.
What also played a role is the fact that we were able to save the people of Crimea, who chose to return to Russia in 2014, from the tragic Donbas scenario. Back then, we heard just the same accusations of aggression and annexation. Over those 8 years, the life in Crimea has changed for the better. People no longer fear for their lives. Economy is thriving, infrastructure is developing. For all those years, we have been investing in the development of this region, and we will do the same with Donbas and other territories that Kiev has and is trying to ruin.
I know that our former Western partners will not listen to us. Or rather they will pretend to have not heard us. But I will say that the referenda were held in the conditions of exceptional transparency, with all electoral norms being fully observed. This is a firm fact, no matter how hard Kiev and its Western sponsors try to assert the opposite. More than 100 independent observers from 40 states monitored the vote. They eagerly share their feedback in media and social networks. In particular, they say they were surprised to see how enthusiastic the people in DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions were about the referenda, and for how long they had waited for it. Unfortunately, you will not be able to hear those assessments in the coverage of Western media. Neither will you see footage of interviews with residents of those regions. Western states said from the very start that they would not recognize the results of those referenda. They mobilized all their propaganda machinery to besmirch those votes. We are not surprised by the propagandist fakes that people allegedly were forced to vote, that they have been tortured for days in order to make them vote in favor of accession to Russia. Foreign Minister of Germany A.Baerbock said that they are “shot and raped and then made to check the box on the ballot sheet while soldiers with Kalashnikovs stand next to them”. Apparently, they vote after they have been “shot and raped”. Those soldiers whom you saw on TV were protecting the participants of the referenda from likely provocations on the Ukrainian side.
Apart from its propaganda, Ukrainian armed forces employed full capacity of its or rather Western military machine, having intensified artillery bombardments of the cities where the referenda were held in order to sew panic among the people in a futile attempt to disrupt the voting.
The hysteria that Western delegations are spreading, i.a. today in the Security Council, proves that direct expression of will by the people has long ceased to be a criterion of a democratic choice. Self-determination is considered a democratic choice only if the West approves of it. In general, the Western model of democracy has been reduced to the liberal minority dictating its will to the conservative majority. This negation of the right to non-liberal and non-Russophobic nonconformity is applicable not only to Ukraine, but to their allies in the Western bloc as well. As recently as the day before yesterday, Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen openly threatened Italy. She said there would be consequences if Brussels would not like the results of the vote in that country. Hungary is already on the black list. Speaking about the candidates to the European Union, Serbia suffers most. Despite the fact that it has historically sympathized with Russia, today Serbia is made to adopt an anti-Russian position and support sanctions against my country, which would devastate Serbian economy. Here is a recent example: American Ambassador in Belgrade demanded explanations from the Serbian side regarding the plan of consultations between Russian and Serbian foreign ministries that was signed on the sidelines of the High Level Week. What is it then if not neo-colonial dictation?
Colleagues,
When denying the people of Donbas and the liberated territories of Ukraine their right to self-determination, Western delegations demonstrate blatant double standards. Most ardent disparagers of the referenda in Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, used to be among the first to support Kosovo’s independence back in the day. They used to say that the territory of Kosovo had the right to secede from Serbia in case of a real threat that the rights of Kosovar Albanians may be seriously violated. They called it “remedial cessation”. Let me emphasize that those were not just claims, but the official legal position, which Western states adopted in the International Court of Justice in 2008. Even though by that moment Kosovar Albanians had not been exposed to any threat for quite a while. Yugoslavia did not exist already, and Serbia, which had been bombed by NATO, had foreign contingents stationed as peacekeepers.
Unlike Crimea, DPR, LPR, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, Kosovo did not have any referendum at all. There was no free expression of the people’s will. There only was a declaration of independence adopted by a self-governance body that clearly stepped beyond its authorities. But for the West, it was enough to recognize Kosovo’s independence. They said the international law did not prohibit declaring independence.
Today Western delegations stick to a completely different position. This is another manifestation of their cynical double standards.
Distinguished colleagues from developing states,
Do not let yourselves be misled. For the record, Western delegations are lamenting alleged violation of the international law and the principles of the UN Charter, but in reality they do not care for either of those. They support the right to self-determination only when it meets their geopolitical interests, as was the case with Kosovo. It allowed them to pursue their own agenda in the Balkans, while preventing nations from walking down the path of sovereign development. But when self-determination appears to be the only way to save the people of Donbas from genocide, the West says they have no such right.
The Charter of the United Nations stipulates the principle of respect for territorial integrity. However under the international law, this respect is not unconditional. As we know, the General Assembly, when acting collectively and on the basis of a consensus, elaborated on the principle of territorial integrity in its Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. According to the Declaration, all states should respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, where governments respect the principle of self-determination of nations and represent all peoples dwelling on their territories. Today, our Western colleagues prefer to not recall this crucial criterion. After the 2014 coup; after prohibiting the Russian language, education, and media; after the Maidan authorities had bombed the area where people refused to recognize the results of the coup; after burning Russian activists alive in Odessa; after the regime that put Ukrainian nation above all and worshipped Nazi collaborators and their legacy took root in Kiev – after all that does anybody dare to say that the Kiev authorities represent the interests of the people of Donbas and the Russian-speaking population at large whom they subject either to Ukrainization or extermination?
It is quite obvious that states who fully respect all its resident peoples and historical ethnic groups should have no fear for their territorial integrity. Our European neighbors, except the Baltic states that are terminally ill with Russophobia, know this too well and never behave like the Kiev regime does at home. Belgium, Switzerland, Finland are the brightest examples of tolerance to a multitude of cultures and languages. Same can be said about Asian and African states with diverse ethnical composition. Only Ukraine, where Russian-speakers account for at least 40% of the population has received from the West a carte blanche for forced Ukrainization of those people – contrary to all civilizational norms and recommendations of international organizations. So why is the West so much surprised that people in Ukraine welcome Russian troops as liberators, no matter how hard the Kiev regime which is only sustained by “NATO spears” tries to assert the opposite, threatening to punish the people of those regions for collaborationism?
By the way, the authorities in Kiev do not hesitate to use the Russian language from time to time – for tactical and propaganda purposes. Suffice it to mention that lately, President Zelensky recorded a few video addresses in Russian in an attempt to disrupt partial mobilization that has been announced in Russia and drive a wedge between the authorities and the society – following the best traditions of Maidan. In his address today, President Zelensky again claimed that in the first place, mobilization touched upon people who are not ethnic Russians, namely – men representing indigenous peoples of the Russian regions. But this will not work with Russia. Western propaganda makers have but a faint understanding of the Russian mentality. Our people can tell truth from lies. They know what they are fighting for – the way their granddads fought for centuries every time an external enemy tried to weaken our country. In different periods of history, we fought in battles to defended our freedom and our right to follow our own way. Our people remember their history, they remember how hard it was. But today, like decades and centuries ago, we stand ready to uphold the interests of our homeland and protect the weak. It is in our genes, and no Western propaganda, no fastidious political scientists are going to change this. Everyone understands that the only goal of the West, which we have met head-on near our borders, is to weaken and exsanguinate Russia, and ideally – to dismember and subjugate it.
Colleagues,
Kiev’s Western sponsors completely disregard the wishes and interests of Ukraine. The people of Ukraine, just as the people of Russia, want peace. But this does not fit into the plans of London and Washington, who earn billions of USD out of someone else’s misfortunes, or Brussels that plays along with them. Otherwise they would not have checked Kiev in March this year when a peace deal was already visible. Instead, a terrible provocation in Bucha took place, and an instruction followed to fight until the last Ukrainian under the watch of NATO mercenaries and instructors.
As we predicted, this scenario had rather deplorable outcomes. Not only the people of Crimea and Donbas, but also of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions turned their backs on Kiev. This process will invariably continue unless Kiev realizes its mistakes and strategic miscalculations and starts to be guided by the interests of its people instead of blindly delivering on the will of those who rejoice at having collided two brotherly nations against one another.
We would want to believe that among our colleagues in the Security Council and the General Assembly, someone will be able to reveal this simple truth to Kiev.
Thank you.
Right of reply:
Mr.President, I will be brief. I want to draw your attention to the following. What we just heard from the representative of Albania is a proof of the double standards that I talked about regarding Kosovo. Our Western colleagues, who call to act in a particular way about the referenda, made completely different decisions with regard to Kosovo back in the day. Thank you.
I am absolutely furious at the hypocrisy of these representatives who speak falsely of Russia’s motives and actions. They are in positions of power and they know the truth. If I can find video clips of the burning in Odessa, the truth about Bucha, listening to Patrick Lancaster interview Russian civilians in the Donbas, they are aware too. Nebenzia is correct, the UN turns a blind eye when the agenda suits the west.
Very direct and powerful speech. I notice that the West is now referred to as “former partners”. Don’t know how long it’s been since this diplomatic language has changed but the use of “partners”, even if meant sarcastically, use to draw much attention in certain quarters.
I noticed the word ‘former’ too. It made me say ‘Wow!’
It’s the Russian’s signal to the world that sabotaging Nordstream Pipelines was the declaration of diplomatic war and partners never declare diplomatic war on each other.
very good speech. Lays out the realities in a succinct manner. One more able Russian, when you look at his American counterpart, you are just embarrassed, if you are an American.
Never seen a bad presentation from him yet – Vassily Nebenzia puts to shame the bald-faced liars and hypocrites of the West, especially those of my own [US] government who don’t even pretend to have any genuine credibility. (Joe Biden’s bullshit assertions at the UN are a prime example, as several authors have aptly and extensively pointed out.)
Unlike the Russians, I can have no pride in my government. It is a cruel, rapacious predator polluted with unspeakably vile NeoCoNazis.
I’m afraid your countryfolk need alternative representation to either the Democrats OR the Republicans – both are terminally infested with Deep State psychos, billionaire oligarch bungs and blackmail from folks like Soros, Gates and the late Epstein.
As a people, you need to stand up as never before and say: ‘not in our name’. Don’t try and storm the fortress but if you can get 100 million people rallying in peace, all over the country, having got the world’s foreign media to cover it (you seriously think CNN, MSNBC et al care a hoot about you lot?), the momentum to have a peaceful revolution may have started.
You should not rule out invoking the Constitution to oust your reprobate leaders by other means, however. Your constitution expressly empowers you to throw such people out and I don’t think a single sane citizen on earth would be against your actions if you carried them out.
Hi Friend,
unfortunately I don’t have the same hope you have about how to dismantle this US political system. I agree when you say that both democrats and Republicans are “terminally infected”. I fear that if Mr. JMF makes or even tries any move that impacts the psychopaths in charge, he can receive a visit or message threating him and his family, if not some worse. With a society full of weapons and bipolarized as well as the poverty increasing, I preview though times for the North American people and this is very sad.
Where’s Clint Eastwood for a new movie when you need him?
Your part’s Vassily Nebenzia, Dirty Harry.
Do you think your treasonous masters in DC are feeling lucky, punk??