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Foreign Ministry statement regarding the rhetoric about Russia's recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics

23 February 2022 15:19
341-23-02-2022

Following the criticism by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and several Western politicians of the decisions made by President of Russia Vladimir Putin to recognise the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics as independent states, we would like to state the following.

We believe that any deliberations about the alleged infringement on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and about the importance of implementing the Minsk Package of Measures, which has been approved by UN Security Council Resolution 2202, have nothing to do with reality.

This begs the question where all these people have been for the past eight years, when the Kiev regime, which came to power through a state coup, waged a punitive military operation against its own citizens, an operation that has claimed 14,000 civilian lives. Acting in gross violation of the Minsk Package of Measures, they imposed a tight transport and economic blockade against Donbass, stopped the payment of pensions and social benefits to its residents, whom Vladimir Zelensky has described as "species" and suggested that they get out of Ukraine. These actions have all the markings of genocide.

All these years, the UN Secretary-General should have demanded that Kiev implement the Minsk Agreements, primarily by developing a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, which is clearly set out in the Minsk Package of Measures and UN Security Council Resolution 2202.

As for the statement made by an official representative to the effect that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres considers Russia's decision to recognise the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics to be "a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine," we would like to remind everyone that the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the UN Charter, which was approved in Resolution 2625 adopted by consensus at the UN General Assembly in 1970, says on the matter of the principle of sovereign and territorial integrity that it must strictly apply to "states conducting themselves in compliance with the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples (...) and thus possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour." The government of Ukraine obviously does not meet this description.

We strongly urge the UN Secretary-General and his personnel to strictly comply with the principles that have been unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly.