https://russiaun.ru/en/news/170222vers
We thank USG DiCarlo, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group Mikko Kinnunen, and Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Yaşar Çevik for their insights. We are also grateful to Ms. Tetiana Montian for sharing valuable firsthand information as to how UNSC decisions for resolution of the internal Ukrainian conflict are implemented in practice.
It is not occasional that the Council is having this discussion today – on this day 7 years ago the Security Council in its resolution 2202 unanimously endorsed the Package of Measures for Implementation of the Minsk Agreements as the only international legal basis for settling the civil conflict in the east of Ukraine. That is why we believe the main goal of this meeting is for the Security Council to affirm that there is no alternative to this milestone document for Ukraine.
Now seven years have passed, and unfortunately we see more and more reasons to believe that our Ukrainian neighbors still are not going to implement the Minsk Package. They say it openly. Let me cite some most recent examples.
Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk said: “There will be no new laws (regarding the special status for Donbas), no direct coordination”. That was after President Zelensky had talked to Chancellor Scholz. By the way, she also said that Kiev was not experiencing any pressure from the West regarding implementation of “Minsk”.
On 4 February in an interview to Ukrainian TV Channel “1+1”, Foreign Minister D.Kuleba said the Minsk Agreements could not be implemented “on Russian conditions”, to which he somehow ascribed direct dialogue between Ukraine and Donbas. Though this requirement is clearly stipulated in the Minsk Package. Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine A.Yermak conveyed the same idea at the recent meeting of political advisers of the Normandy Format that took place in Paris.
Earlier, on 2 February, Mr.Kuleba said: “None of Ukraine’s regions will be able to veto state-wide decisions. This is cast in stone! So there will be no special status, as Russia would imagine it, and no veto right”.
The day before, on 1 February, President Zelensky also reminded the whole world of Ukraine’s intractability. While hinting that there was an “alternative” solution to the conflict in Donbas, he said: “Kiev has varying views on the order of implementing certain provisions of the Minsk Agreements”.
On 31 January, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council O.Danilov said in an interview to Associated Press: “The fulfillment of the Minsk agreement means the country’s destruction. When they were signed under the Russian gun barrel — and the German and the French watched — it was already clear for all rational people that it’s impossible to implement those documents.”
Ukrainian politicians consistently attempt to make the West think that Minsk Agreements run counter to Ukraine’s interests. But if building peace on Ukrainian soil is part of those national interests, there should be no such sayings.
Another common excuse is as follows: Russia allegedly fails to implement its obligations under the Minsk Agreements. I think we may hear something of this kind later today. At the same time, it is obvious that there are no grounds to put a question this way, because the Minsk Agreements contain no mentioning of Russia. I will only cite one opinion in this regard – the opinion by former judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine V.Shishkin, who recently offered to start criminal cases against Mr.Kuchma and Mr.Poroshenko who took part in the signing of the Minsk Agreements. The latter is accused of the fact that “Minsk envisages 20 obligations for Ukraine, 6 for OSCE, 2 for Donbass, and none for Russia”.
Distinguished colleagues, let me again briefly remind you of the content of the document, which stands on the agenda of this meeting. I will cite it provision by provision, the order of which is strictly stipulated and cannot be altered.
- ceasefire
- withdrawal of weapons;
- OSCE monitoring;
- launch of dialogue between Kiev and Donbas
- amnesty
- detainee exchange
- humanitarian access
- lifting of economic blockade
- reinstatement of Kiev’s control of the border, if para.11 is implemented
- withdrawal of foreign formations and mercenaries
- new Constitution that envisages special status for Donbas
- endorsement of the order of convening elections
- intensification of the work of the Contact Group in Minsk
Seven years have passed, but none of the provisions of the Package were fully implemented by Ukraine, starting from the very first provision, which is ceasefire. The root cause of the problem is Kiev’s systematic unwillingness to have direct dialogue with authorized representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Contact Group. This happens despite the fact that paras. 4, 9, 11, and 12 of the document directly stipulate such dialogue. This is not our abstract “requirement”, this is an obligation of Ukraine envisaged in the document. And this is the provision that our neighbors seek to challenge increasingly often, thus risking to ruin the entire Minsk process with most devastating for Ukraine consequences.
Ukraine stubbornly refuses to implement provisions of the Minsk package about direct dialogue with Donbas regarding provisional order of local self-government, recovery of socio-economic ties, and holding a constitutional reform to anchor the special status of the region. At present, a draft law on decentralization has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The draft has not been coordinated with Donbas, and it does not envisage a special status for this area.
The Ukrainian side set a course for rejecting all direct communication with Donbas in the framework of the coordination mechanism. Models that they offer leave no space for effective reaction to ceasefire violations.
Attempts to shift responsibility to Russia and present it as a side to conflict are void and totally baseless.
I must say that we are very disappointed by the “ostrich-like” position of our Western colleagues who try to ignore those obvious things. It is also surprising that they try to downplay the Minsk Package while making more accent on the Normandy Format. I remind that according to Annex 2 of UNSC resolution 2202, the Normandy Format is “an oversight mechanism” for implementing the Minsk Agreements rather than a platform for articulating new decisions.
For seven years on end and at all platforms, Russia has been calling on Kiev’s Western sponsors to exert some pressure on their protégés and make them comply with Minsk. But they did the exact opposite. Growing feeling of impunity and permissiveness bolstered “hot heads” in Kiev to invent more excuses and embark on further military ventures against their own population.
Now we have what we have — thousands victims of the internal armed conflict. Multi-million population of Donbas are aliens in their own country. They are in the target of assault and sniper rifles, howitzers and combat drones. As for Ukrainian representatives, they keep inventing pretexts for not implementing their obligations and give orders to bombard peaceful population.
Do you know what “Alley of Angels” is? It is a memorial in Donetsk commemorating children who died at the hands of Ukrainian military. Children like those who died on the beach in Zugres – a town in Donbas. On 13 August 2014 it was targeted by Ukrainian Air Force. More than 20 people were killed, dozens wounded.
Twenty-four-year-old Anastasia Ruban was on the beach with her two-year-old son Maksim when the Ukrainian forces opened fire with a heavy multiple rocket launcher. One of the shells landed right next to them. “There was smoke and blood everywhere. The bloody bodies of children were lying on the ground,” the girl recalls.
The Investigative Committee of Russia and RT media holding put together this and other stories that illustrate the crimes of Ukrainian military who use prohibited means and methods of warfare. The Permanent Mission of Russia circulated those materials among UNSC members yesterday. I suggest that you look into these materials, but please be ready that you will see some terrible things.
Here is another indicator of Kiev’s “commitment” to the Minsk Package – kidnapping of observer from Lugansk at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination A.Kosyak that happened in October last year. Mr. Kinnunen, we would appreciate if you could tell us about this episode. We know that this treacherous act constituted a direct violation of para.5 of the Minsk Package that prohibits “the prosecution and punishment of persons in connection with the events that took place in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine”.
Colleagues,
In conclusion, let me express hope that representatives of Western states will resist the temptation of turning this meeting into a platform for baseless and aggressive rhetoric to feed the TV cameras, and that they will abstain from making unsubstantiated allegations that Russia is allegedly going to attack Ukraine. I think we have had enough speculations on that matter, i.a. at the US-initiated meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 2022. We have explained everything there was to explain. The alleged invasion date that you announced has already passed, so perhaps you’d better stop putting yourselves in an awkward situation.
Thank you.
“The latter is accused of the fact that “Minsk envisages 20 obligations for Ukraine, 6 for OSCE, 2 for Donbass, and none for Russia”.”
Please excuse my poor memory, but was not the Minsk process a hasty arranged event drawn up to get a defeated army of Ukrainians (& various “Nato” operatives) out of a likely cauldron massacre and fall of Keiv?
When dealing with cancer, it is either nailed and eliminated, or it risks returning.
We appear to be witnessing its return.
And what has Russia to do with it? They re-obsorbed Crimea for obvious strategic reasons and with an overwhelming vote by the locals. Apart from the R2P Russian speaking peoples from genocide, they have as much responsibility for Ukraine madness as the USA has for Mexico’s troubles — probably less given the illegal drug demand north of the border.
Yes, Minsk 2 was an urgent timeout called by the empire to rescue proxies led by the ‘most powerful military in world history’ from their cauldron at Debaltsevo. Their refusal to acknowledge this defeat is a big reason why they also refuse to accept the agreement they signed to escape from it.
Thank you for clarifying this matter. Just as I thought.
Therefore, as you indicate, there is a huge “cognitive dissonance” (Leon Festinger 1957) and “unfinished psychological business” aspect to this current matter.
That lack of admission of “error and contrition” in the Minsk process is obviously a core design fault.
Deliberate or oversight? It remains one key reason why the process is overly complex and will more than likely just repeat itself. Perhaps the UNSC sign-off assumed this step but that now seems mute & void — as are many resolutions regarding Israeli aggression in Palestine since 1948 & then especially 1967.
The broader systemic fault would appear to fall on the USA & Russia as the main top-dog protagonists behind this Ukraine civil war — i.e., frozen superpower conflict/war by proxy.
The Russians don’t want to deal with a floundering “shadow” aspect of their USSR period. Yet they will readily help Syria. They don’t want a NATO shadow on their doorstep and yet they will sell their jewels to Turkey. They protect their port in Syria but do little to stop Israeli aggression on Damascus (& sometimes themselves).
The USA don’t want to expend any real resources beyond their captured European/Nato colonies’ capacity to deliver (friction, sanctions, market, & alibi). Nato expands eastwards only on the capacity of the USA Federal Reserve to print $usd to infinity and buy statelet compliance. A real economy (economic) balance would limit this option – just as the gold standard limited Nixon etc.
However, following the Obama 2007/9 bail-out of the bankrupt debtors the whole “too big to fail” financial system has largely been captured by the elite criminal class. And the media are complict with every effort across the board to never mention the “class war” in progress.
And the other player (China) is also a major economic beneficiary of this twisted arrangement with the USA. It all comes under the risk term “moral hazard”.
Explaining the particular phenomena that overwhelm our attention requires insight, which offers a precedent for the so-called Thucydid trap. Americans themselves have been aware of this phenomenon at least since 2017, when Graham Allison enlightened it in his book, “Destined for War.”
So what is it about? In short – the phenomenon described by the Greek historian Thukydides in the 5th century BC is repeated. l. in his book “History of the Peloponnesian War” (431 – 404 BC). In principle, this is a situation where a hegemon that was hitherto dominant, such as ancient Sparta, is not enough to keep pace with a new growing power such as Athens. This process cannot be reversed other than to defeat a potential new hegemon (Athens) in the remaining time interval, while Sparta is even more militarily stronger. It will not be possible later.
Looking at today’s situation through the prism of Thucydid’s trap, it is therefore quite evident what Americans are all about. The Russian-Chinese tandem (modern Athens) is growing stronger every year and it is a matter of short time before it takes on the role of the world’s dominant hegemon, which will be militarily invincible. On the contrary, the United States and its vassals (modern-day Sparta) are weakening unstoppably, leaving them with a relatively short time when they could theoretically reverse this process. On paper and in terms of military spending, they are still a hegemon. The problem, however, is that without a successful war with the challenger, this relative dominance cannot be maintained in the long run.
However, the Americans are not stupid and apparently suspect that in a direct military confrontation with the Russian-Chinese tandem, they would already lose the whole line today. They are aware that they must therefore wage war with Russia through foreign hands (proxy war), with the proviso that they themselves would engage in a bloody conflict from the position of an arbitrator only in the final phase, similarly to the First and Second World Wars, thanks to which they are repeatedly outrageous. they became rich while their competitors remained in ruins and totally ruined.
This is where Ukraine comes into play. Of all the possible alternatives to drag Russia into an exhausting war, there is no more effective means of reviving Bandera’s Russophobic Nazism and pitting Ukrainians against the Russians. Americans have been working hard on this scenario since 1991, and especially for the last eight years. However, they still lack the last, most important act of the whole act, which is the military massacre in Eastern Europe, which from the point of view of the USA is explicitly expendable, ie an uninteresting and indispensable region. The Americans are happy to sacrifice Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia and Moldova, only to weaken Russia militarily and thus the entire Russian-Chinese tandem.
However, time is running out very quickly. Unless Russia bleeds in a fratricidal war, the fate of the United States will be sealed. The Americans will find it very difficult to find another acceptable battlefield where they could send someone to war with Russia. Neither the Russians nor the Chinese need a war. Time plays in their favor. Unlike ancient Sparta, today’s US is no longer in a position to defeat Russia and slip out of Thukydid’s fateful trap.
The Russians naturally record the difficult situation in which the United States found itself. Therefore, in order to avert the war, they offered the Americans a way out in the form of agreements on security guarantees and geopolitical stability
They definitely view ‘bleeding Russia in a war’ as the key to their imperial salvation. Unfortunately for them, the same concept has already failed spectacularly in Syria. It won’t work, or even happen, in Ukraine.
I know quite a lot of people who lost everything, their homes, businesses and even savings in the Great Banking Swindle of 2008. Royal Bank of Scotland’s Chief Executive ‘Fred The Shred’, built up so much Debt/Exotic Financial Instruments, it collapsed under the strain. To the best of my knowledge he never spent a day in jail and it’s still a mystery how he was able to set foot in Scotland and walk around freely of his own accord (own legs ) thereafter.
Very little difference between him and Bernie Madoff except, in the main, the calibre (and race) of clients he swindled, and the life sentence for his trouble (son killed himself ). Also Madoff’s clients received, or so it was reported around 25% of their investment back, Fred The Shred (so named for shredding the paperwork on his crooked deals ) in most cases received nada with only secured creditors (the Banks ) made whole by the UK Government.
I digress! Ukraine under Minsk 2 will still have 80% of their country with the 15% on a buy back scheme as such, the best they can ever hope to get is 95% (5% Crimes is gone ). The country’s been in limbo for 7/8 years, paralysed. therefore logic dictates that 80% of the cake with future income streams from the semi-autonomous region of Donbass, coupled with some potential sweetheart deals with Russia (especially a long term transit hub ) gives them an opportunity to turn around their fortunes, something that will not transpire under the USS Flagship Enterprise.
The main reason for America’s belligerence was to contain Russia by placing WMD’s on its border with Ukraine, well, that ship has sailed for good with Russia’s security submissions to US/NATO. They now need to make the best of the hand they’ve been dealt, or rather they dealt themselves when allowing CIA Obama & Zionists like Nuland . . . . . not forgetting Joe & Hunter Biden & USS BankCorp vultures, in. I think it was around 3 months after the coup d’etat that the predators swooped into the Ukrainian Central Bank at 3am in the morning and were packed and on the tarmac 2 hours later with the country’s gold reserves. Helluva price to pay for the illusion of NATO membership.
Imo, Putin should grant Zelensky a one-on-one audience over the weekend at one of his private residences and provide him a meaty bone to take back to Kiev, the vast majority will vote for that in the name of peace (plus assistance in dealing with the ultra trash thrown in gratis, with pleasure).
Zelensky and almost entire Rada can not decide anything of essence in this geopolitical stream of events. If he tries to do anything incompatible with “deep commands”, he will immediately find the answer to the famous question: is there life after death?
Theft of Ukrainian central bank gold.
Yes. The heist was short, sharp and conducted with precision.
I thought it happened within in the first 24-48hrs of the Maiden.
It’d be great if someone like Michael Hudson, someone with credibility, could refresh our memories, and inform those new to the long history of US Ukraine shenanigans
Libya’s gold was ‘rescued’ with similar timing and precision.
The Netherlands got their gold back from ‘safe’ storage’ in the US for doing their part in the MH-17 scam.
Germany still waits, and will wait forever, given the nature of the group who (((control))) the Fed.
” I think it was around 3 months after the coup d’etat that the predators swooped into the Ukrainian Central Bank at 3am in the morning and were packed and on the tarmac 2 hours later with the country’s gold reserves. Helluva price to pay for the illusion of NATO membership.”
That event actually happened on the very night of the coup.
The whole American strategy of fake propaganda does work in Europe, with fertile ground on European exceptionalism, Russophobia and the fake feeling that Ukraine/Russia is far and not their problem.
Russia’s security demands are not only Ukraine, but Western propaganda cleverly reduced this issue to a sole Ukraine issue.
The world mass media repeats the same fake propaganda from Argentina to Australia, from Norway to South Africa. We have an effective “Gleichschaltung” on “information” globally.
The economies in the West are bankrupt, their political systems are disconnected from reality and a fake manufactured Ukraine crisis might give them some extra time, so they believe.
I assume Russia/China will give the West eventually a devastating response, taking all above into account.
Cheers from France.
The New Normal…or just a neocon Holiwood script to keep the Clinton Gang off the front pages?
“Blinken announced that he will attend the Munich Security Conference, which is set to begin tomorrow in Germany, along with US Vice President Kamala Harris. At the same time, NATO’s general secretary Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance is preparing a further build-up its forces along Russia’s border. This kind of war-time mobilization against a “Russian threat”, he said, would now have to be accepted as “the new normal in Europe.””
“Shelling in Donbass brings Europe to brink of war” (Clara Weiss, 2 hours ago)
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/02/18/ukra-f18.html
“Report: Escalation begins – Ukrainian troops carry out heavy shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk [Videos]
17.02.2022”
https://mainland.press/2022/02/17/report-escalation-begins-ukrainian-troops-carry-out-heavy-shelling-of-donetsk-and-lugansk-videos/
Referencing…
https://mvlehti.net/2022/02/17/raportti-eskalaatio-alkoi-ukrainan-joukot-suorittavat-voimakkaita-pommituksia-donetskia-ja-luganskia-vastaan-videot/
And what do we have in Serbia?
The same Western powers are putting pressure on the Republic of Serbia to voluntarily give up its most important part – the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija in favor of the national minority, which already has its home country in the neighborhood.
In that occupied territory, the so-called Republic of Kosovo, the Serb majority in the north (according to Serbia and the Serbian people, the most unfavorable possible, forced “Brussels agreement” – a counterpart to the “Minsk agreement”), agreed on some things. The puppet, maximally criminalized Serbian government led by President Vučić (henchmen of the aggressors and occupiers of Serbia – NATO-EU war criminals) elected by the Western masters, fulfilled up to one imposed obligation towards the secessionists, while the other side did not fulfill any. Nor do they intend to. They do not even want to talk about ”the main point” – the so-called “Communities of Serbian Municipalities” (in essence, not much more than a folklore association, without the prerogatives of autonomous independence). Western masters, guided by their own interests, fully support them in this.
In addition, the same “collective West” supports and enforces disrespect, unilateral interpretation and violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement in relation to the Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dayton agreement by which, in the Western powers induced and imposed by the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the Serbs prevented the continuation or recurrence of genocide committed against them by the same neighbors – Bosnian Muslims and Croats in World War II.
If these are not double standards, then say what they are!
I’m surprised by the fact that the Russians stay calm and continue to put up with this nonsense. Why continue to negotiate with people who have no honour? What is the point of pursuing agreements with people who never keep their word? I just read an article on the Vzglyad website discussing hypothetical Russian arms deliveries to Donbass to balance out the NATO arms deliveries to Ukraine. A lot of the comments that follow the article are openly critical of the Russian government’s apparent passive stance with regard to US/NATO aggression in Ukraine.
Press release of the Ministry of Defense of Russia
“On February 19, under the leadership of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces V.V. Putin, a planned exercise of strategic deterrence forces will be held, during which ballistic and cruise missiles will be launched.”
February 19 starts from 00.02.2022 Moscow time (UTC+3))).
ICBMs: “Sineva” (“Liner”), “Yars-M” and “Yars-S”.
Combat equipment: MIRV (multiple warhead with individual targeting units):
hypersonic MMRV (multipurpose maneuverable warhead)
(10-11 and 6 pieces, respectively)))).
From other missile ranges and other military exercises:
MIRV IR (separable warhead with individual breeding units) with MARV (maneuverable return vehicle) / AGCE (aerobic hypersonic combat equipment) “Anchar-RV” in scheduled launches
I really really hope that the complete documentation incl photos of ukrops war crimes is circulated to world media and every UN country. Set up Nuremberg trials two.
What would cause such hysteria, 24/7 news filled with propaganda of an imminent Russian attack, from the Brits and the Yanks. Why the big push, begging the Russians to attack, you can almost smell the fear running down BoJo and Bibo’s legs.
Everyone is so focused on tanks sinking into mud…….there’s an elephant roaring a world away.
We know, now out in the non MSN News, that the Steele Dossier was fake, and was funded by the Clinton Foundation.
I’d want that out of the news cycle: both the Brits and members of US establishment conspired to remove Trump illegally. Other US politics have gone war over less; sexual favours. This is a tad, by degrees of magnitude, bigger.
Cheers M
or memory, but was not the Minsk process a hasty arranged event drawn up to get a defeated army of Ukrainians (& various “Nato” operatives) out of a likely cauldron massacre and fall of Keiv?
The evacuation of civilians of Donbass is being called for by Russia. The US puppet state of Ukraine is up to something.
https://www.rt.com/russia/549874-breakaway-ukrainian-region-evacuation/
What is the outcome of the UN’s (Usury Nations) meeting about the Resolution 2022 (Minsk agreement)?
The Minsk agreement is just a “milestone document.” All talk no action. What did Russia accomplish in this meeting? No sanctions, …. nothing.
Any unequal implementation of the rule of laws, damages their credibility and legitimacy. Russia by enabling the unequal implementation of laws discredits itself and the system it supports. Russia votes for sanctions against whom?
Where are those trolls who were saying that Russia will accomplish something at this Feb 17 meeting? They lost their credibility.
All Russian conflicts are frozen, with agreements that aren’t going anywhere. What is the purpose of agreements? PR, talk,…