Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is convinced that NATO experiments and Western public silence on the situation in Donbass have become the causes of humanitarian and political catastrophe in Europe.
"NATO experiments and the deafening silence of the Western public are the reasons for the humanitarian and political catastrophe in Europe. This should have been put to an end since the West refused to hold any negotiations and welcomed aggressive statements and direct threats by Kiev's puppets against Russia," she wrote on Monday in her Telegram channel.
Zakharova stressed that Russia did not start the war, it is ending it. In this regard, she recalled that the Russian side all these years called on the world community to fight back against the systematic destruction of the population of Donbass. "These are millions of people who were losing loved ones every day and living in basements hiding from shelling," she added.
"Where were all the countries and their publics for eight years when the war was going on, and how did they condemn the killing of at least 13,000 people over those years?" - the diplomat continued.
Zakharova also pointed out that none of the "now screaming in 'civilized countries'" ever went to a single rally in support of the annihilated population of Donetsk and Luhansk, demanding that this bloodshed be stopped.
"The world was silent. The obedient silence of the world community and ignoring the bloody catastrophe that resulted from the 2014 anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine, committed with the direct participation of the US, EU, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and other NATO countries, only encouraged the Kiev regime to continue destroying its own population," the diplomat said.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in response to an appeal from the leaders of the Donbass republics, he decided to conduct a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Russian military is not striking Ukrainian cities, and military infrastructure is being taken out of action with high-precision weapons. Civilians are not threatened, the ministry assured.
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Photo: Press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation / TASS
Based on materials from TASS