On the night of February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed his compatriots. In it, he announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine and called on Ukrainian troops to lay down their arms, the correspondent of The Moscow Post reports.
According to the President, the operation was launched in accordance with Article 51 Part 7 of the UN Charter. This is an article on the right to self-defence. The head of state said that Russia cannot put up with the fact that a threat comes from Ukraine.
At the same time, he said that Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. The main goal is to ensure the security of Russia, which can be achieved by the demilitarization and denazification of modern Ukraine. To this could be added decommunization, which Vladimir Putin spoke about two days ago, during an appeal to the nation on the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics.
Then Putin called on the Ukrainian authorities to be consistent, not to "throw" it "halfway." Then he made a hint that Russia could contribute to such "decommunization." It seems that the toughest scenario is now being implemented, which will curtail the Nazi bacchanalia built in Ukraine after the bloody coup d'état of 2014.
Russia was forced to defend itself. Eight years of pumping Ukraine with weapons, and 30 years of consistent policy to encircle our country with military bases, weapons systems, strangulation with sanctions. Further delay repeatedly increased these risks.
It is no longer even so important whether Ukraine will be taken to NATO. It became clear that the military development of these territories - the territories for which they fought, which were rebuilt and developed by our ancestors - will continue. On a bilateral basis, within the framework of completely different alliances, it does not matter.
The main thing is that the potential of Ukrainian territories will be used to pressure our country, and the flight time of the latest hypersonic weapons from Kharkov to Moscow can be only four to five minutes.
Russia has no right to watch painstakingly as the threat of a sudden, instantaneous strike unfolds at its borders. During a recent press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Putin metaphorically compared this to a knife put right to his throat.
Time has come
Over the past decades, Russia has consistently and persistently defended the principles of international law, hoping that after the cold war the world has finally become equal, predictable, transparent. Instead of real cooperation, providing mutual security guarantees, Russia was consistently cornered. The spring had to crack down someday. And for the Russian Federation, and for the whole world, and, especially, for Ukraine itself, it is better that this happens now.
Back in the 90s, it seemed that our "Western partners" had no reason to support the separatists in the Caucasus, pump up the radical pseudo-democratic "opposition" with money (then such an opposition is used as a lever against statehood - which we saw in Ukraine in 2014), squeeze Russia out of traditional spheres of influence. But all this was, moreover, continued on an increasing scale.
There is reason, if sober, without equivoces, to admit: the United States and the same UK, as well as their customers, do not need not just a strong Russia. They do not need Russia at all - as an independent state. Ideally, if our country broke up into a dozen more "independent states" that would gnaw among themselves, solving territorial, national, and other issues. Then Russia, as a large, independent center of power, could be forgotten.
The process was gaining momentum, but was stopped. As for the United States and its allies, for them, the President had special words in his appeal about the military operation. The head of state said that any attempt to intervene from the outside in the events taking place in Ukraine will entail an immediate response from Russia. One that history hasn't known yet.
In addition, President Putin called the US-formed bloc of Western countries "an empire of lies." Russia is full, and over the past eight years, especially, it has made sure of this. This is written by American politicians, political scientists and journalists themselves.
At the same time, Putin emphasized that the United States is a great country and a systemically important power, whose satellites "not only meekly and obediently subdue, sing along to her for any reason, but also copy her behavior, enthusiastically accept the rules proposed by him."
However, it is impossible to come to the bear's den, poke a gun at him and expect him to wait tirelessly for his fate. Today's operation in Ukraine is the key to the further security of our state. Despite the possible losses, it will avoid much greater casualties.
Today millions of Ukrainians are wondering - why was all this? Why anti-Russian hysteria, weapons pumping, and in recent days - a hint of the possibility of returning nuclear weapons. Create even greater threats to Russia. How many people, tens of thousands, would remain alive if the Comprador Ukrainian elites did not collude with the outspoken Nazis and their Western curators, did not carry out a coup d'état, did not come with weapons to the Donbass?
Why pursue a policy of Nazification, discrimination of Russian speakers, why deploy unprecedented repressions against the Russian language in the country, turn the territory of the country into a springboard for pressure on Russia? Not to mention completely insulting, discriminatory acts: "who will not say, he is a Moskal," "a Moskalyak on a gilaka." In the current situation, there is clearly no place for irony. And yet I want to say: "jumped..."
Now we hear formidable statements from Europe and the United States. Russia promise to punish, punish, impose new, toughest sanctions. There will still be many such statements. But it is important that they can no longer really influence the situation. Russia is protected, and Russia is in its own right.
But this is not a war in the broad sense of the word, it is a special military operation. And ordinary Ukrainians of Russia are not enemies. Like soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who will voluntarily lay down their weapons. We are talking about ensuring the security of our country for tens, or maybe hundreds of years to come - and it will be ensured.