The rapid deterioration of the situation in Ukraine and the amount of contradicting and distorted information that has recently circulated in Western media is a matter of serious concern. It seems about time to set the record straight in order to understand the underlying reasons for what has happened in that country.

Let us briefly recall how it was all unfolding. In November 2013 the democratically elected head of the Ukrainian state, President Yanukovych postponed (not ‘cancelled’, as it is often portrayed) the signing of the association and free trade zone agreement with the EU due to purely pragmatic reasons – to take time and analyze its economic repercussions. This led to well-orchestrated anti-government protests, which were immediately used by the Right Sector pro-fascist militants and other radicals to advance their own agenda that had nothing to do with Euro-integration. In so doing they committed unspeakable atrocities against unarmed policemen like setting them on fire with Molotov cocktails and using snipers to kill both the protesters and the policemen to provoke further bloodshed. This crime has never been investigated by Kiev though there is plenty of evidence and accounts of witnesses as to who was behind those killings.

Then on February 21 an agreement between President Yanukovych and the opposition leaders was signed. It also bears the signatures of the Foreign Ministers of Germany, Poland and France. They all agreed to create a government of national unity, to start work on a new constitution and only then to hold presidential elections. Under the agreement Yanukovych also pledged not to use force against protesters and to pull the Interior Ministry units out of Kiev, while the opposition was to withdraw from the occupied administrative buildings, dismantle the barricades and disarm its fighters. Unfortunately the opposition dumped this agreement before ink on it dried. They took advantage of the situation when the Interior Ministry units were withdrawn from the city to renew their attacks on virtually unprotected government offices which eventually led to an armed coup and overthrowing of the legitimate president in a purely unconstitutional manner.

A new ‘president’ was named by the opposition and a new coalition ‘government’ was formed, which included several representatives of the infamous ultranationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party. A quick look at the charter of this party gives you an idea of what it stands for. It proclaims that the party members are successors of Ukrainian nationalists who signed the Declaration of June 1941 pledging to collaborate with Hitler in his quest for ‘the new world order’.

Considering the ideological tilt of this ‘government’ it came as no surprise that its first action was to announce that the law on regional languages (which includes Russian) will be repealed. Members of Svoboda faction in the Ukrainian Parliament were heard saying that Russians and those who speak Russian are ‘enemies’ of Ukraine and need to be ‘eliminated’. The level of anti-Russian hysteria is best exemplified by a recorded telephone conversation released on YouTube between former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and one of her political allies in which she threatened to wipe out millions of Russian speakers in South Eastern Ukraine with nuclear weapons. Outraged by this as well as by attempts of the Right Sector militants to break into Crimea and the South-East of Ukraine, the people there stood up to defend themselves, their heritage, their interests and language. They do not accept the new ‘authorities’ in Kiev, who regard them as second rate citizens, and call for decentralisation of power and federalisation in Ukraine. In response to their legitimate aspirations the Kiev rulers labeled them ‘terrorists’ and ‘separatists’ and launched a ‘counter terrorism operation’ to suppress their fight for their rights.

This punitive action in the Ukrainian South-East, which already claimed lives, involves at least 160 tanks, 250 armoured personnel carriers as well as other heavy weapons and fighter planes. The use of the army against its own people clearly constitutes a war crime and those who perpetrated it will sooner or later be brought to justice.

On April 17 in Geneva the representatives of Russia, the United States, Ukraine and the European Union agreed on specific measures to resolve the crisis. All violence should stop, all illegal formations are to be disarmed, occupied public buildings are to be vacated, jailed activists are to be amnestied. What was agreed in Geneva was a reciprocal commitment by all the parties concerned to de-escalate the conflict. Contrary to this agreement our Western partners demand that all the above steps are to be taken exclusively by the protest forces of the South-East of Ukraine while claiming that the Right Sector and other radicals have a certain ‘license’ from the Kiev authorities.

In this regard I would like to refer to a comment, published in The Malta Independent on April 25, by Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds Dr. Ian Borg who expressed his hope that the Geneva agreement would be honoured by all parties involved. One could not possibly agree more. It is high time that those in Kiev and their patrons realised this before the nightmare of a full scale fratricidal war in Ukraine becomes a reality.

Boris Marchuk

Russian ambassador to Malta