WASHINGTON, May 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has slammed as cynical the attempts of Ukraine’s diplomatic mission in Washington to draw a parallel between victory over Nazism in 1945 and the domestic Ukrainian conflict.
The ambassador commented on a message by Ukraine’s military attache Boris Kremenetsky sent to the veterans of the former Soviet Union living in the US, which criticized Russia.
The Russian diplomat said in a statement posted on the embassy’s Facebook page that the message had been sent to the Russian diplomats by "perplexed and outraged veterans and their family members, who have no relation to modern Ukraine." The Ukrainian military attache emphasized the need to "defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty from Russia’s aggression." However, Kremenetsky repeated the words of Soviet diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov that "the enemy will be defeated and victory will be ours!" Antonov has described this move as "tragicomical."
The Russian diplomat has described as cynical the attempts by Ukraine’s Embassy to draw a parallel between defeating Nazism in 1945 and the six-year domestic Ukrainian conflict, the author of which in violation of the Minsk agreements wanted to secure a war victory." "I note that his ‘buddies’ shell Donbass and veterans who live there almost every day while Washington accuses Russia of this," Antonov said.
"It is difficult to comment on illogical approaches of Ukrainian diplomacy to the theme of Victory as a whole. There are attempts to fit into the chorus of those who put the USSR - the main force that defeated Nazism at the cost of enormous sacrifices - on a par with Hitler Germany, those who claim that the war started because of the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact" of 1939, and not because of the Munich Agreement of Western democracies with Hitler and Mussolini in 1938," the Russian ambassador noted.
According to the diplomat, the main reason for such behavior of Ukrainain representatives is "an attempt to paint Russia as an enemy." Moreover, according to him, Russia has never considered "the Ukrainian people as hostile to Russians." "Ukrainians are brothers. And this is not a slogan, this is my perception of the situation. I am strongly convinced that no matter who tries to separate Ukraine from Russia, they will lose." According to him, "years will pass, and Russia and Ukraine will live as peacefully, fraternally, as it had been for many, many years before that.".