GENEVA, November 23. /TASS/. The phenomenon of "Euromaidan" has brought Ukraine only misfortune, loss of economic potential, territories and any prospects, while the collective West continues its policy of ruining that country without hiding its real purpose - the fight against Russia, Russian ambassador to Switzerland, Sergey Garmonin, has said in an article for the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche. In Russian, the article, entitled Euromaidan: Ten Years Later, is available on the embassy's website.

"Based on the results of the past 10 years, one can draw an unambiguous conclusion that Euromaidan has brought Ukraine only misfortune, loss of economic, industrial and demographic potential, as well as of territories and any prospects," Garmonin said. That country "has become the poorest state in Europe, unable to support itself and forced to live on handouts from the West."

"The mirage of 'European integration', which the Brussels bureaucrats like to speculate about, still looms somewhere beyond the horizon," Garmonin emphasizes.

The collective West "continues its policy of destroying Ukraine, no longer hiding its true aim - to fight Russia, to inflict on us the notorious 'strategic defeat' with the hands of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky's regime," the Russian ambassador stated, adding that for the sake of this, Brussels and Washington "are ready to fight to the last Ukrainian."

After December 1991, Russians wanted to see Ukraine as "a good neighbor and a reliable friend."

However, "the position of the collective West and the pliability of Kiev's timeservers left Russia with no choice" other than "to take decisive measures to defend Donbass and itself."

Garmonin stressed: the goals of Russia's special military operation to protect Donbass, demilitarize and denazify Ukraine will be achieved.

"The West's efforts to beef up the Kiev regime’s military muscle can only delay this moment, increase the number of victims and the scale of destruction in Ukraine, exacerbate the consequences of anti-Russian sanctions for their architects, and not reverse the process," he concluded.

The events dubbed "Euromaidan" started in Ukraine on November 21, 2013. On that day, the country's government announced the suspension of the process of signing an association agreement with the European Union. In response, the opposition launched large-scale protests in Kiev, which turned into riots. The political crisis led to a coup d'etat in Ukraine in February 2014.