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'Russia does not want war'
The Alliance is approaching closer to Russia’s boundaries, increasing reconnaissance activities and mastering attack tactics.
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French President Emmanuel Macron (right) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 7, 2022 in Moscow, in an effort to find common ground on Ukraine and NATO. (AFP/Sputnik)
O
ver the past few weeks, the media have been fueling tension, arguing that “Russia plans to attack Ukraine”, etc. Speculation about Moscow’s possible invasion of Ukraine has been published by The Jakarta Post regularly, and once again, those forecasts have proven to be false.
Interestingly, the official position of Russia has been quoted in a rather truncated way, while the “microphone” has been generally given to western experts.
In this regard, I wish to draw the attention of the esteemed readers of the Post to the following.
Russia, like anyone else, knows very well what the real war means (in World War II alone, our country lost more than 27 million human lives). And we are definitely the last ones to escalate tensions with Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put it straight: “If this depends on our side, there will be no war. We don’t want it. However, we will not allow our interests to be ignored.”
Until the coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014, when the Soviet Union was dissolved and huge parts of historically Russian territories with a mainly Russian population found themselves outside Russia, we accepted that as is. Our country has helped the new republics to survive, including Ukraine.
What is happening today? NATO is massively supplying weaponry and military equipment to Kiev and training Ukrainian troops. The Alliance is approaching closer to Russia’s boundaries, increasing reconnaissance activities and mastering attack tactics.
Back in the 1990s, NATO promised that it would not move eastward. And now, the particular concern is the fact that NATO is expanding. This naturally makes us take steps to ensure our security.
Let me mention in this regard that Russia is exclusively moving its troops inside its territory. However, the Alliance has placed its forces abroad, close to Russian borders, increasing tensions and posing a greater threat to security and stability in Eastern Europe.
We do strongly believe that political and diplomatic means are the only effective way to resolve the emerging issues. We urge NATO and the United States to provide guarantees to rule out further eastward expansion of the Alliance and refrain from more military buildup.
In response, Washington suggested focusing on the right of states to choose alliances as described in the declarations of the Istanbul (1999) and Astana (2010) OSCE Summit, but there is no obligation to do so. We do insist that the parties to the agreement on the indivisibility of security should implement it in good faith.
We wish to receive proper confirmation. Otherwise, it is necessary to explain openly why the US and its allies do not follow the decisions taken collectively.
I wish to stress once more: Russia is against irresponsible aggravation of the situation around Ukraine, and we will do everything we can to ensure that no armed conflict will ever take place.
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The writer is ambassador of Russia to Indonesia.
