Russia distrusts Western 'determination to live in peace: Nebenzia
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Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia asserts that recent history shows that negotiations with the West cannot be trusted.
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Representative of Russia to the United Nations Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, New York, US, March 18, 2022 (Reuters).
At a UN Security Council, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said that the West instigated "deep Russophobia," which left Moscow "no choice other than to defend" Russia "from you [the West], to defend our identity and our future."
During the session, US deputy ambassador Richard Mills claimed that former German chancellor Angela Merkel, the primary negotiator of the Minsk Agreement, had already negated. Mills said that France, Germany, Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe strove to implement the Minsk Agreement "in good faith," and Russia allegedly failed to implement "a single commitment it made" in the agreement.
To that end, Merkel had said, "The 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give time to Ukraine. It also used this time to become stronger, as can be seen, today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not the modern Ukraine."
French ambassador to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere, made claims similar to those of Mills, which were equally contradicted in an interview with Merkel earlier n 2022.
De Riviere said Germany and France worked "tirelessly" since 2015 to establish the Minsk Agreement. However, former French President François Hollande had earlier agreed with Merkel when he revealed that "Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture… It is the merit of the Minsk Agreements to have given the Ukrainian Army this opportunity."
#Ukraine | Jamais les difficultés rencontrées dans la mise en œuvre des accords de Minsk ne pourront servir de justifications ou de circonstances atténuantes au choix qu’a fait la Russie de mettre fin au dialogue par la violence. pic.twitter.com/m0Yom6R3L5
— La France à l'ONU 🇫🇷🇺🇳 (@franceonu) February 17, 2023
Russia responds to false accusations
On the hand, the Russian envoy to the UN argued that Germany and France were “holding back” on implementing the Minsk agreements.
“You knew very well that the Minsk process for you is just a smoke screen, so as to rearm the Kiev regime and to prepare it for war against Russia in the name of your geopolitical interest,” Nebenzia said.
Nebenzia also explained that the West has no desire to “build a European and Euro-Atlantic security system together with Russia [because] for you such a system can only be aimed against Russia.”
It is worth noting that Merkel, during her interview last year, reaffirmed the statements of the UN envoy when she said that "the Cold War never really ended," and stated that this assessment stemmed from the other fact that "ultimately, Russia was never pacified."
💬 Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nation Vassily Nebenzia:
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) February 18, 2023
Renunciation of the #MinskAgreements was a tragedy for Ukraine that happened due to criminal policies of Ukrainian leadership who were instigated by the collective West.
🔗 https://t.co/AVzQxO9mDn pic.twitter.com/9ecjcGAyt1
At the UNSC, Nebenzia further added, “We have no trust left in you, and we are not able of believing any promises you make – not as regards a non-expansion of NATO in the east, or your desire not to interfere in our internal affairs, or your determination to live in peace.”
Without any hesitation, the Russian envoy stated “You have shown that it’s impossible to negotiate with you [the West],” asserting “You’ve shown how treacherous you are by creating on our borders a neo-Nazi, neo-nationalist beehive and then stirring it up.”
Read more: Moscow finds the Merkel 'confessions' concrete grounds for a tribunal
Russia fooled on Minsk agreements: Putin
Russia was hoping for peace agreements back when it signed the Minsk agreements in 2014, but it was fooled, according to what Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December 2022, while addressing the situation in Ukraine.
"We all endured, endured, endured and hoped for some kind of peace agreement, but now it turns out that we were simply fooled," Putin told reporters.
"After the revelations of [ex-German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [ex-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, and other politicians about the true goals of the Minsk agreements, it became obvious to everyone that Russia was not the source of the conflict in Ukraine," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said just yesterday.
Read more: Merkel confesses NATO plans for Russia since 2007 in new interview
