MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Ukraine’s population has shrunk from 46 million to 25 million since the widespread protests about a decade ago, said Alexey Polishchuk, the head of the Second Department of the CIS countries at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"Those, who supported the protests then, wanted changes for the better, dreamed of a decent ‘European’ life. Now that 10 years have elapsed, it is clear that their hopes haven’t come true. Ukraine has turned into one of Europe’s poorest countries, has lost its independence and is being maintained by Western colonizers who determine its domestic and foreign policy," the diplomat said. "According to various estimates, the population of Ukraine has shrunk from 46 to 25 million people."
According to Polishchuk, lawlessness, human rights violations and corruption have become usual practice in Ukraine.
"Russophobia has been elevated to the rank of state policy. History is being falsified, Nazism is flourishing, dissent is being suppressed. Society is deeply divided. The civil war in Donbass went on for eight years, and the special military operation has been going on for almost two years. Out of 27 Ukrainian regions, six voluntarily joined the Russian Federation," he said. "The Ukrainians, who took to the streets to protest back then, could hardly imagine the catastrophic consequences it would cause. For the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians, the coup became a tragic point of no return to normal life and confidence in the future".
Washington’s meddling
The diplomat said that following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US "rudely and cynically interfered in the affairs of Ukraine," which was one of the most developed Soviet republics with powerful industrial, agricultural and scientific potential.
"They tore it from Russia step by step, destroyed centuries-old ties between people who are, in fact, a single nation, and fomented neo-Nazi sentiments. They molded Ukraine into an anti-Russia, put it before a contrived choice of going "either with Russia or with the West," and built it into the Western neo-colonial system of coordinates," Polischuk stated.
He said that while they were at it, the Americans of course encountered strong resistance from political forces that advocated ties with Russia and the preservation of the Russian national identity of a significant part of the population.
"At the turn of 2013-2014, it became clear that it was extremely difficult to reverse the pro-Russian sentiments of society by democratic means, so Western political spin doctors, using pro-European slogans, brought people out to the Kiev main square and set off a violent anti-constitutional coup," the diplomat said.