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View all search resultsLetter to editor: Russian ambassador responds
Russian Ambassador Sergei Tolchenov defends Moscow’s Ukraine actions as lawful and security-driven, questions UN voting claims and says Russia prefers negotiations.
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Delegates wait for the start of a meeting on Feb. 17, 2026, the first day of the third round of Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks mediated by the United States in Geneva, Switzerland (AFP/Handout/National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine)
I
noticed the interview with Ralf Beste, German Ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN and Timor-Leste, published in The Jakarta Post on Feb. 20, 2026. I find it interesting to see a new face in the local diplomatic corps but it is a pity that together with other readers we have to hear the same old story about the “Russian war machine” and “sanctions packages”. An unbiased view on the Ukrainian conflict requires addressing its causes and the relevant aspects of international law, rather than replicating politicized clichés.
As for us, we will try to “separate the wheat from the chaff,” especially because these days mark 12 years since the tragic events on the “Maidan,” the culmination of which was an externally orchestrated, unconstitutional armed coup d’état in the Ukrainian capital. On Feb. 21, 2014, an agreement on the settlement of the political crisis in Ukraine was signed between then-president Viktor Yanukovych and the leaders of the opposition in an attempt to avoid bloodshed. It was supported and guaranteed by the foreign ministers of several European countries, including Germany. None of the agreement’s provisions were implemented. The so-called guarantors turned a blind eye to the violations and hurried to declare a “change of power” in Ukraine, openly encouraging the new Ukrainian regime to pursue its anti-Russian policy.
The special military operation that started on Feb. 24, 2022, is being carried out in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, in full compliance with Russian legislation and at the request of the Donbass Republics that had been subject to the Ukrainian regime's shelling and blockade with the connivance of Western countries. It was Russia that made every effort until the very last moment to de-escalate tensions in Europe.
I can recall all the previous attempts to ensure peace in Ukraine. Thanks to Russia’s active mediation the Minsk Protocol was signed in September 2014 and the “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements” (Minsk-2) dated Feb. 12, 2015, and endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2202. Those instruments were aimed at preventing the civil war in Ukraine from spreading further. Germany, France and Poland also participated in establishing this mechanism.
Now it is clear that they had a hidden agenda and used these documents as a means of buying time to continue pumping the illegal Ukrainian regime with weapons and to pursue a course designed to prepare for war against the Russian Federation. Then-federal chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel recently admitted this. In interviews given already during the special military operation, she stated that no one had intended to implement those agreements. Had the Germans, French and Poles fulfilled their obligations as guarantors, Ukraine might have avoided civil war.
But the mediators had a different plan in mind. According to various estimates, by February 2021 the European Union military aid to Ukraine amounted to around US$28 billion. For comparison, the construction budget of Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara is approximately $30 billion.
By carrying out the special military operation, the Russian Federation seeks to prevent Russians and Russian language speakers from being exterminated, as well as eliminating long-standing security threats created by the West after NATO had been expanding eastward for many years, bringing its military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders, which was one of the primary causes of the Ukraine crisis.
