Western countries’ statements about providing security guarantees to Ukraine are empty, groundless excuses, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
‘Security guarantees presuppose the words “guarantees” and “security” and, overall, a range of certain characteristics as well, but these are missing here.
‘No one here can even say anything about it, so these are empty, absolutely groundless excuses that are becoming more and more numerous,’ the diplomat said.
Zakharova also highlighted Tuesday’s statement by EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano that the EU cannot provide security guarantees to Ukraine because it is not a military organisation.
According to the diplomat, the EU is currently unable to guarantee anything, even directly within the bloc itself, due to a ‘political and ideological deadlock.’
‘They cannot guarantee themselves anything; they cannot guarantee a stable supply of energy resources, which they need like an organism needs blood.
‘They can’t guarantee themselves even that.
‘They can’t even afford an investigation to determine who undermined their energy security.
‘They themselves have become vassals of a single colonial power,’ Zakharova pointed out.
Meanwhile, Zakharova said on Wednesday that EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell is simply twisting the facts, putting forward unfounded, untenable arguments in his statements concerning the Black Sea grain deal and Russia.
She was commenting on a recent article by the EU foreign policy chief in which he insisted that EU sanctions were not having any negative impact on global food security and that Ukraine was playing a critical role in ensuring it, and in which Borrell prioritised fighting alleged Russian disinformation on the food security issue.
‘Borrell does not even bother to put forward any serious grounding for his position. He simply twists the facts, putting forward unfounded, obviously untenable arguments.
‘He proposes simply taking on faith his assertions that Russia allegedly derived significant benefits from the second part of the package deal (reached in Istanbul in July 2022), i.e. the Memorandum of Understanding with the UN, which in fact was never actually functional, as well as the purported absence of any negative impact of sanctions on Russian exports.
‘The world community should hold Borrell accountable for the lies (he has) spread; he did not cite a single fact, but he did remain silent about many things,’ Zakharova noted.
The diplomat stressed that Borrell’s words constitute disinformation and fakes.
‘The cessation of the functioning of the Black Sea Initiative limits the ability of the European Union, under a specious excuse, to replenish its own stocks and quietly and with impunity profit from the most vulnerable countries in this regard, enriching themselves at their expense by reselling cheap Ukrainian grain and other goods,’ she went on.
‘Moreover, there was additional pressure on the alternative routes created by Brussels for the export of Ukrainian grain, the “corridors of solidarity,” through which, according to the European Commission, more than 60% of grain was exported from Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation.’
According to Zakharova, all of this is fraught with tangible tension for the EU’s own food security, ‘especially in the context of the well-known negative consequences of anti-Russian sanctions on the domestic EU market, and unfavourable climatic and public health conditions in a number of EU regions.’
‘There are risks of political instability in the countries bordering Ukraine, where local farmers – (who make up) a significant part of the electorate – are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the dumping prices charged for Ukrainian agricultural products in local (Eastern European) markets,’ she added.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman pointed out that Borrell never says anything about the Russian and Belarusian fertilisers that needy countries did not receive due to EU sanctions and about the devastating long-term consequences of this fact for global food security.
‘Moreover, Belarus, whose share in the world trade in potash fertilisers until 2022 was 20%, is not mentioned in the article at all. Meanwhile, on August 3 of this year, Brussels imposed sanctions against the Belneftekhim concern, which owns key Belarusian enterprises, manufacturers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers,’ she said.
‘Does this mean that the European officials, who put their rubber stamp on anti-Russian and anti-Belarusian restrictions, simply do not understand anything about agriculture? Or are the efforts to undermine the export potential of the Russian and Belarusian agricultural sectors deliberately done on purpose? I think the answer is obvious. And concern for global food security is nothing more than another attempt to justify the disastrous consequences of the EU sanctions policy,’ Zakharova stated.
She also noted that Borrell did not say a word about the share of Russian goods in global agricultural markets and the number of countries that meet their needs through deliveries sourced from Russia.
‘We are convinced that the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America to which this article is addressed are well aware of what may result from the irresponsible behaviour of Brussels, which, in its desire to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia,” is ready without hesitation to subvert reliable supply chains for bringing domestic (Russian) agricultural products to countries in need,’ Zakharova said.
‘In this situation the EU, which is still desperately claiming to be a responsible international player, must choose: either to stop purposefully destabilising global food markets by imposing more and more restrictions on Russian and Belarusian agricultural products, or to stop pretending to be a champion of world food security,’ the diplomat concluded.
- The summer counter-offensive by Ukrainian troops has shown that the conflict in Ukraine cannot be solved through endless weapons supplies, Sahra Wagenknecht, member of the Bundestag for The Left, wrote on her page on Facebook.
According to the politician, the now several-weeks-old counter-offensive has brought about nothing but ‘numerous victims and destruction on both sides.’
‘And this is despite the fact that, as of the end of May, the West had supplied Ukraine with more than 73 billion euros worth of arms and ammunition, including cluster bombs, which are banned by international law because of their devastating effects on civilians,’ Wagenknecht emphasised.
In this regard, she wondered ‘how many more people will have to die until those in charge in the United States and Europe finally realise that this conflict cannot be solved militarily.’
The parliamentarian lashed out at the Western leaders who ‘blocked the truce talks, which were already far along, between Ukraine and Russia in the spring of 2022’ and called on them to learn from their mistakes.
‘Instead of endlessly supplying Ukraine with weapons, the German government should finally push for a ceasefire and facilitate the start of negotiations to reach a peace agreement based on a compromise between the parties,’ she said.
Earlier, the mayor of Baden-Baden, Dietmar Spaeth, said that ‘in late August or early September,’ he would send the German government a formal proposal to make the world-famous German vacation destination a venue for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Consultations on the prospects for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine were held in the Saudi city of Jeddah on August 5-6. Representatives from more than 40 countries took part. Russia was not invited to the meeting.
- A peaceful settlement in Ukraine is possible only if Kiev stops hostilities and terrorist attacks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said on Thursday.
‘On our behalf, we continue maintaining our principled stance that a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement is possible only if the Kiev regime stops the hostilities and terrorist attacks, while its Western sponsors stop pumping up the Ukrainian military with weapons,’ Galuzin said.
According to the Russian diplomat, ‘the original foundations of Ukraine’s sovereignty – its neutral, non-bloc adherence and non-nuclear status – must be confirmed in order to reach this (conflict) settlement.’
‘The new territorial realities must be recognised, the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine and the rights of its Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities must be ensured in accordance with the requirements of international law,’ Galuzin added.
- Four civilians have been killed and another 12 have been wounded in Kiev artillery attacks on the Donetsk People’s Republic over the past 24 hours, the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine’s war crimes it was reported on Thursday.
Ukrainian army units shelled the DPR 93 times using multiple rocket launchers and cannon artillery supplied by the West as well as cluster munitions. Fire was delivered at Donetsk, Gorlovka, Makeyevka, Yasinovataya and its outskirts, Svetlodarsk, Staromikhailovka and Zaitsevo.
A projectile hit a two-storey house in Donetsk’s Petrovsky district killing a woman and a four-year-old girl. Two survivors were pulled alive from the rubble by rescuers.
Sixteen homes, several cars and two infrastructure facilities were damaged in shelling. The enemy expended more than 350 artillery rounds.
Overnight to Thursday, Kiev forces continued to deliver sporadic strikes at DPR settlements. A man was killed in central Gorlovka. In Donetsk, cluster munitions damaged several houses. Yasinovataya also came under fire.
In a statement on Thursday morning, DPR Acting Head Denis Pushilin said that the Ukrainian forces had stepped up attacks on Donbass in a bid to inflict maximum damage on the civilian population.