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Munich conference shows evaporating Western optimism on Ukraine — Russian Foreign Ministry

At the same time, Maria Zakharova stressed that the international community should take very seriously the threats of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to reconsider the country's renunciation of nuclear weapons

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. The gloomy atmosphere at the annual Munich Security Conference showed that the West’s once-swaggering optimism on Ukraine has all but evaporated, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment on the Ukrainian crisis.

"On February 16-18, the 60th Munich Security Conference was held, which was reduced to discussing the situation in Ukraine with a focus on how to forestall the complete collapse of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We noted the dispirited atmosphere that permeated the meeting. There is no trace of the former optimism among the Western [cheerleaders for Ukraine]," the diplomat noted.

"If just a year ago they were brimming with confidence in the imminent victory of their Kiev puppets, this time around they could barely conceal their skepticism and pessimism. Apparently, Europe and the United States are beginning to understand the impossibility of defeating Russia," Zakharova stated.

At the same time, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the international community should take very seriously the threats of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to reconsider the country's renunciation of nuclear weapons.

"In February 2022, Zelensky, in his speech at the very same Munich [Security] Conference, threatened to reconsider Kiev's renunciation of nuclear weapons [under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum]," the diplomat said. "We are convinced that the international community should take such reckless statements very seriously. Moreover, Ukraine has still retained the scientific and industrial potential for the production of nuclear weapons that was created in the Soviet era.".

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