MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Moscow sees attempts to draw Finland and Sweden into NATO, particularly those being made by the US, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.
"We are viewing the course taken by Finland’s leadership to continue the policy of military non-alignment as an important factor of ensuring security in northern Europe, in the European continent in general, yet at the same time we cannot but notice persistent attempts by NATO and some member states of the alliance, above all, by the United States of America, to draw Finland, as well as Sweden, into the alliance," she said.
She added that "practical interaction" of Helsinki and Stockholm with NATO is growing, this has been observed for a while.
"NATO drills were also held there, these countries provided the territory for such maneuvers by this military bloc, this was conducted near Russian borders, including the imitation of attacks by American forces with the use of nuclear weapons against the so-called comparable adversary," the diplomat said.
In relation to this, the spokeswoman stated that both Finland and Sweden as OSCE members confirmed the principle of the indivisibility of security. "The choice of ways to ensure national defense and security is an internal and sovereign affair of any state, that said, all OSCE member countries in their national capacity, including Finland and Sweden, confirmed the principle, according to which the security of some states should not be built at the expense of the security of other countries," she concluded.
"Comparisons of Yugoslavia and Ukraine are fake"
Attempts to compare NATO’s bombardments of Yugoslavia and Russia’s military operation in Ukraine are fakes, Zakharova said.
"Such comparisons and parallels are part of one falsehood. We know well the West is fond of fakes," Zakharova said when asked for a comment on some analysts’ claims Russia’s arguments in support of the operation in Ukraine were identical to those NATO used during the bombardments of Yugoslavia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 declared a special military operation in Ukraine in response to the Donbass republics’ request for assistance. He stressed that an occupation of Ukrainian territories was not in Moscow’s plans. He stressed that the real purpose was demilitarization and denazification. The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces were not conducting any strike against cities, but merely putting military infrastructures out of order, so the civilian population was not at risk.
On March 24, 1999, NATO began a military operation against Yugoslavia. According to NATO’s website during the 78-day operation the alliance’s planes flew 38,000 sorties, including 10,000 bombing raids. According to military experts, 3,000 cruise missiles were fired and about 80,000 bombs, including cluster and depleted uranium bombs dropped. According to Serbian sources, an estimated 3,500-4,000 people were killed and about 10,000 (two-thirds of them civilians) injured.
"Contradicting each other"
Representatives of the Kiev regime should stop contradicting each other if they really want talks, Zakharova said.
"Russia has said it is ready to send a delegation to the talks in Minsk. We have stated this. We are ready for it, the Russian presidential press secretary [Dmitry Peskov] has said so. Taking into account that the foreign ministry has been mentioned, I can say that such work can begin at any moment. The only question is to make sure that the West influenced side does not start lying and twisting again, and that these representatives of the Kiev regime do not start refuting each other now. I have just cited a statement by [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry] Kuleba. They must finally make up their mind: either they want talks or lay claims to our country," he said.
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky posted a video address on his Telegram channel inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit down at the negotiating table. According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the Russian leader is ready to send a delegation to Minsk for talks with Ukraine.