Colonel Le The Mau: The name 'Ukrainian War' reflects the true nature of the conflict

For more than 8 months, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a special military campaign in Ukraine, which has been called by many different names such as "Russia-Ukraine conflict", "Russia-Ukraine war" or "Ukraine war". Up to this point, it can be seen that the name that most accurately reflects the nature of this conflict is "Ukraine war" - the focus of geopolitical and geo-economic competition between Russia, supported by a number of countries, on one side, pursuing the aspiration to build a new multipolar world order, and the US, the leader of the Western bloc, which is trying to save the inevitable collapse of the unipolar world order formed after the Cold War, dominated by Washington.

Therefore, the Ukraine war became the biggest and most prominent topic in the debates at this year's United Nations General Assembly Forum in New York City, USA, in the last days of September.

Why was Russia forced to launch a special military operation in Ukraine?

At this year's UN General Assembly Forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivered two keynote speeches at the General Debate of the General Assembly and at the UN Security Council's Ukraine Session. Both speeches addressed the war in Ukraine and the world order today. In his speech on September 22 at the UN Security Council session discussing Russia's report previously submitted to the United Nations titled "The Truth Behind the Events in Ukraine and Donbass", Sergei Lavrov said at the meeting that the factual evidence compiled in Russia's report titled "The Truth Behind the Events in Ukraine and Donbass" clearly shows that extremist nationalist forces, rabid anti-Russian forces and neo-Nazi forces came to power in Kiev after the armed coup on February 22, 2014 with the direct support of Western countries.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks at the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the United States, September 24. Photo: Reuters

Soon after, the new government in Kiev began to act in a lawless manner and disregarded the basic rights and freedoms of the Ukrainian people, such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the right to speak Russian. Sergei Lavrov said that for more than eight years, the Ukrainian army and nationalist fighters had been killing people in the Donbass region just because they refused to recognize the results of the unconstitutional coup in Kiev in February 2014. In addition, the people of Donbass were determined to defend their basic rights, which were enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution, such as the right to live as Russian-Ukrainians and to speak Russian.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the post-coup Kiev regime’s genocidal policy was openly declared by its top leaders and did not need to be hidden. For example, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk declared that ethnic Russian residents of Donbass “are not people”. Even current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has a similar opinion. In an interview in September 2021, in response to the question “what do you think about the people living in Donbass”, he said that there are “people” and also “living things”.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky once declared that in Donbass "there are people", and also "living things". Photo: Reuters.

These statements have shown that the new government in Kiev's policy of genocide against Russians and Ukrainians of Russian origin since the 2014 coup has become a national policy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that since 2014, the Russian Federation has submitted to the International Criminal Court more than 3,000 reports on the crimes of the Kiev government against the people of Eastern Ukraine. Among them is undeniable evidence of the crimes of the Ukrainian nationalist forces in the bloody coup on February 22, 2014 in Kiev that overthrew the constitutional government of President Yanukovych, killing 77 people and injuring hundreds. Or evidence of the massacre of hundreds of people at the Odessa Trade Union Conference House on May 2, 2014; evidence of hundreds of shelling and bombings by the Ukrainian Army against peaceful cities in Donbass.

According to Russia's report to the United Nations, since 2014, more than 10,000 civilians in Donbass have been killed by the Ukrainian army. In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: Moscow has provided a large amount of factual evidence proving that Ukraine is playing the role of a springboard for the West against Russia. Meanwhile, for many years, the Russian Federation has repeatedly proposed an initiative with European countries to unify the rules of peaceful coexistence and establish a common security environment in Europe based on the principle of equal and indivisible security. This principle has been affirmed at the highest level in the documents of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). According to this principle, no country in Europe has the right to strengthen its security at the expense of the security of other countries. Meanwhile, the US wants to admit Ukraine into NATO and turn this country into a shock soldier in its anti-Russia strategy.

Destroyed houses in Donbass. Photo: AFP

As we know, the US has publicly declared Ukraine a "non-NATO ally" and since 2014, the US and NATO have conducted more than 10 joint exercises on Ukrainian territory under an anti-Russian scenario. Most recently, NATO led 40 countries in conducting exercises in the Black Sea under the scenario of helping Ukraine "liberate Crimea". Therefore, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared that the US's admission of Ukraine to NATO is a "red line" that cannot be crossed. The last time on December 15, 2021, Russia proposed to build an initiative to establish a common security space in Europe into a legally binding project. According to this project, Ukraine cannot join NATO. However, this proposal of Russia was arrogantly rejected by the US and European countries on the grounds that they were the "winners" and Russia was the "loser" in the Cold War and had to accept the rules of the West.

During a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on February 5 this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if Ukraine joined NATO, a major war between Russia and NATO would be unavoidable. This was also one of the reasons that forced Russia to launch a special military campaign in Ukraine to demilitarize and defascize Ukraine. Mr. Sergei Lavrov said that after sending nearly 3,000 reports to the United Nations presenting evidence of the Kiev government's crimes against the people of Donbass from 2014 to the present, the Russian Federation had not received any response from the International Criminal Court.

“Russia no longer has faith in the International Criminal Court mechanism. We have been waiting in vain for eight years for an investigation to punish the Ukrainian government. We no longer expect justice from this organization and a number of other international organizations. Now the waiting time is over. Everything I said at this Forum once again confirms that we could not help but decide to launch a special military operation in Ukraine,” Mr. Sergei Lavrov said.

Legal basis of Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a special military operation in Ukraine

At this UN General Assembly Forum, the US and Western countries still consider Russia's special military campaign as an "invasion" of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that this campaign was carried out in accordance with the treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between Russia and the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic on the basis of Article 51 of the UN Charter to protect the people of Eastern Ukraine and eliminate security risks to Russia. Mr. Sergei Lavrov is confident that, once falling into a similar situation as Russia, any country with sovereignty and self-respect will be aware of its responsibility to its people and will act in the same way.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Tass

Previously, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum 2022, answering journalists' questions about the legal basis for Russia's decision to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, the International Court of Justice ruled that, based on the United Nations Charter, any people residing on the territory of a country that wants to declare independence do not need to ask permission from the central government of that country. This ruling of the International Court of Justice was applied to the case of Kosovo declaring independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This ruling of the International Court of Justice was applied by the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics when declaring secession from Ukraine.

Russia and other countries also have the right to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Exercising this right on February 21, 2022, Russia recognized the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and signed an international treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. This treaty was ratified by the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the National Assembly of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics. It stipulates a number of obligations of Russia to support them in case of invasion. Responding to the call of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and pursuant to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which stipulates the right to defense and self-defense, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine to help the people of these two republics fight against the Ukrainian invasion.

President Putin signed a decree recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk. Photo: Tass

Another legal basis of Russia is related to the Minsk Agreement signed by the Kiev government with the authorities of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic. In his speech at the United Nations Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia has made efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis by co-sponsoring the Minsk Agreement signed in 2015 with Germany and France. This agreement includes 12 points, of which one key point is that by the end of 2015, the Kiev government will accept to amend the Ukrainian Constitution in the direction of providing special status for the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. On that basis, Ukraine will be built into a federal state that does not include Crimea. The Minsk Agreement has been confirmed by the United Nations Security Council as the only political solution to peacefully resolve the Ukraine crisis.

However, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Kiev government, supported by France, Germany and the United States, on the one hand, refuses to implement the Minsk Agreement, and on the other hand, accuses Russia of violating this agreement and uses that as an excuse to impose sanctions on Russia, although Russia, Germany and France are only guarantors and not one of the parties to implement this agreement. In addition, the Kiev government also blockades finance, transport and energy for the people of Donbass. Therefore, residents in this region are cut off from social benefits, pensions, salaries, banking services, communications, education and health care. They are deprived of basic civil rights stipulated by the Ukrainian Constitution, including the rights to economic, social, cultural, civil and political activities stipulated in the 1966 International Convention.

Leaders participated in signing and negotiating around the Minsk 2 Agreement - a document that was expected to be a corridor to contain the escalating conflict. Photo: DW

Recently, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Danilov both openly and unequivocally stated that the Minsk Agreement is only to maintain sanctions against Russia, while at the same time taking advantage of time to receive military aid from the US and NATO to modernize the army, preparing for the war against Russia.

Meanwhile, instead of pressuring Kiev’s leadership to comply with the Minsk Agreements, Berlin and Paris have turned a blind eye to the Kiev government’s open threats to resolve the “Donbass issue” by force. Therefore, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia has tried to make concessions, but the more concessions it makes, the more the US, European countries and Ukraine push forward, forcing Russia to act. Russia has no other choice.

Anti-Russian and anti-Russian policies of the Kiev government and the West

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that in recent years, the Kiev authorities have launched a frontal attack aimed at eliminating the Russian language in particular and Russian culture in general. For example, the Kiev authorities have passed laws on “language” such as the Law “On Education” of 2017, the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as a State Language” of 2019, the Law “On Completion of Secondary Education” of 2020, the Law “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine” of 2021. All of these laws are aimed at eliminating the Russian language and Russian culture from Ukraine.

Ukraine's Ministry of Education has removed Russian language and literature from the school curriculum. Photo: RT

In addition, the Kiev government has passed laws that encourage the development of Nazi ideology and practices. The Kiev government, established after the 2014 coup, together with the United States and Canada, voted against the United Nations General Assembly Resolution prohibiting the revival of Nazism. Therefore, the Kiev government has completely ignored the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities to adjust the language laws that Ukraine itself has enacted. Meanwhile, these multilateral organizations do not have the courage, or simply are not allowed, to force the Ukrainian authorities to fulfill their international obligations in the field of human rights.

In line with its anti-Russian policy, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education eliminated the Russian language and literature from the school curriculum. All books published in Russian were destroyed, and monuments to Russian cultural figures were vandalized. This action by the Kiev authorities was a direct echo of the actions of the Nazis during World War II.

With the support of the state, the ideology of ethnic intolerance towards Russians is being vigorously applied in practice. Today, Ukrainian state officials are not ashamed of their neo-Nazi nature when they openly call for the massacre of Russians with impunity. For example, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Pavel Vrublevskiy, said in an interview on August 22 last year: “We are trying to kill as many Russians as possible. The more Russians we kill now, the less our children will have to kill.”

Dnepro Mayor Boris Filatov also declared his anti-Russian stance with equal fervor. “We have every moral right to calmly and with a clear mind to kill all ‘non-humans,’ meaning Russians all over the world, without any time limit and in the largest possible numbers,” he said.

On September 13, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Alexei Danilov stated: “In the settlements where the Armed Forces of Ukraine have regained control, they will carry out Ukrainization not only against Russians but also against any other ethnic groups.” According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, this is not only anti-Russian but also anti-nationalism in Ukraine. Currently, there is no doubt that the Kiev government has turned Ukraine into a totalitarian state of Nazism, where the rules of international humanitarian law are violated with impunity. Therefore, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions use terrorist tactics, using civilians as “human shields.”

Ukrainian President Zelensky during an interview with journalists on August 5, 2021. In it, he advised all those who feel they are Russian to flee to Russia for the future of their children. Photo: AFP

The peak of the anti-Russian policy was the statement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an interview with journalists on August 5, 2021. In it, he advised all those who feel Russian to flee to Russia for the future of their children. In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “At the moment, the West is in a rage over the referendums taking place in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine. But the people living there are just “doing” what the head of the Ukrainian government Volodymyr Zelensky advised them. That is, returning to Russia with their lands - where their ancestors have been settled for centuries.”

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the official Russophobia has spread on an unprecedented scale in the West. Western countries do not hesitate to openly declare their intention not only to cause Russia to fail militarily, but also to collapse and dismember Russia. In other words, they want to wipe a country with great geopolitical power and independent policies from the world political map.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the West's anti-Russian policy was completely contrary to Russia's goodwill after the Soviet Union dissolved itself. Russia had no other ambition than to integrate into the world as a sovereign state. Therefore, Russia voluntarily accepted the unification of Germany without any conditions. Russia voluntarily dissolved the Warsaw Pact and sincerely believed the promise of Western leaders that it would not expand NATO "an inch" further east. Russia voluntarily withdrew its armed forces from Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Meanwhile, the West has been arrogant and believes in American exceptionalism. As early as 1991, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz openly declared that after the end of the Cold War, NATO could use its military without fear of punishment. This explains why after the Cold War, without the permission of the UN Security Council, the US and NATO launched wars of aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and Libya without being sanctioned by the UN. Currently, the US is conducting a proxy war in Ukraine to sabotage Russia.

President Vladimir Putin once stated: “The mere fact that we speak Russian and pursue an independent foreign policy is already an excuse for the Western group, led by the United States, to embargo Russia.” Meanwhile, Russia advocates building a new world order in which all countries, regardless of rich or poor, big or small, strong or weak, must be respected equally. That is the new world order that will replace the unipolar world order dominated by the United States. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is an inevitable trend of history that no one can prevent. This is the deep root of the anti-Russian policy of the Western group led by the United States.