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The need for the international community to support Ukraine and defend its territorial integrity was underlined by Ukrainian Ambassador to Cyprus Ruslan Nimchinsky, in statements he made online on Wednesday to Cypriot media representatives.
Nimchinsky noted that although the overall situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border remains stable in terms of security, the risks remain, while stressing that "there can be no compromises on the territorial integrity of the country, no dialogue with representatives of the separatists".
As the Ukrainian ambassador said, "hundreds of thousands of soldiers and several thousand tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery units have been deployed in close proximity to the Ukrainian border and in Crimea", while a similar situation prevails in Belarus in the context of joint military exercises between Minsk and Moscow between 10 and 20 February. Nimchinsky noted that the intense militarization of Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov continues on the Russian side, and conveyed a recent statement by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense condemning as unacceptable Russia's actions, which under the pretext of holding military exercises resulted in the obstruction of navigation and maritime trade in the region.
The Ukrainian Government, according to Mr. Nimchinsky, is working with its partners to assess and counter Russian actions, with the comprehensive package of measures proposed by Ukraine last November in response to increasing Russian military mobility being an "effective tool to deter further aggression", comprising three strands - diplomatic, economic and military.
In terms of active diplomacy, over 20 high-level diplomatic missions visited Kiev in the last two weeks, according to the Ukrainian Ambassador, and a similar number of telephone conversations between the Ukrainian government and foreign partners, with the message in all cases remaining common, that "Russia will pay an extremely high price if it undertakes military operations on the territory of Ukraine".
As the Ukrainian official said, "the Ukrainian Government is working on de-escalation and political resolution of the crisis, based on previous agreements and the work of the Normandy format" involving Russia, France and Germany, and called on Russia to respect what has been agreed, such as the permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops and military equipment, thus contributing to the normalisation of the situation and facilitating the political resolution of the crisis.
In the area of economic sanctions, Ukraine supports, according to the Ukrainian diplomat, the extension of existing sanctions against Russia for the latter's aggressive actions, such as cyber attacks or the provision of Russian passports to residents of the Donbas region and the spreading of false news in the Ukrainian media.
On the part of military support, Mr. Nimchinsky said that Ukraine is working with its international partners, such as the US and the UK, to "strengthen the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which is crucial to prevent a possible Russian attack," stressing that "the future of the Euro-Atlantic and global security architecture is being decided in Ukraine."
The Ukrainian Ambassador also referred to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's response to yesterday's call by the Russian parliament for the President of the country to recognize the self-proclaimed "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Lugansk, which, as noted, would mark Russia's deliberate withdrawal from the Minsk Agreement and would be a serious blow to the diplomatic effort to resolve the crisis, calling on Russia to make a constructive contribution to the ongoing peaceful settlement efforts.
In response to a question from the Cyprus News Agency regarding yesterday's reports on the withdrawal of Russian troops, Mr. Nimchinsky said that until this morning no such development had been confirmed, adding that "the Ukrainian side expects the actual withdrawal of Russian troops as a sign of de-escalation of the crisis."
Finally, to a journalist's question about the impact of a possible conflict on gas supplies to European countries, the Ukrainian ambassador replied that "the chances of completing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in such a case would be annihilated" as a result of the reaction of Western countries.
Source: CNA
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