MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. Russia has never had any intentions, and nurtures no plans, to invade Ukraine and reports of Moscow preparing a military operation are fake news being spread to set the global public opinion against Russia, Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said on Monday.
"Russia has never had any plans to invade Ukraine and nurtures no such plans. According to the latest polls, 80% of our citizens consider the Ukrainian people as a fraternal people. That is why, this entire fake news story [about the alleged preparations for an invasion] becomes completely obvious," Russia’s top senator said, following the results of the autumn session of the upper house, adding that this campaign was intended "to set the global public opinion against Russia."
"This is absolutely a crude Russophobic information attack on Russia - all these conjectures that we are preparing an attack," the Federation Council speaker said.
As Russia’s top diplomat pointed out, "someone needs this conflict in Ukraine as part of the anti-Russia project." "We understand who needs it. And for this purpose they are ready to resort to any methods," Matviyenko said.
Weapons are being pumped into Ukraine under the pretext of Russia’s alleged preparations for an invasion and the country is being actively exploited for military purposes while the United States and NATO are increasing spending on the alleged Moscow-Kiev confrontation, Russia’s top senator pointed out.
Minsk Accords
Valentina Matviyenko added that Russia would insist on the implementation of the Minsk Accords, and no other approach is possible.
"We will continue to insist on the clear implementation of the Minsk Accords. There is no other way. The Minsk Accords are not simply a bilateral document, they were enshrined by a UN resolution as an international agreement which heightens the necessity and the lack of alternatives to their implementation," she said
The Federation Council speaker emphasized that Russia consistently and persistently urges the leaders of European countries and the US to exert influence on Ukraine in order to implement the Minsk Accords. "Instead of implementing the Minsk Accords, they quite contrarily approve laws discriminating against the citizens of Lugansk and Donetsk, discriminating against Russian speakers and Russian citizens in Ukraine, they didn’t introduce changes to the constitution, and so on. We have been talking about this openly and publicly, and there has been no adequate reaction," she said.
"Russia does not participate in the Minsk Accords. The Minsk Accords are signed between Ukraine’s leadership and the leadership of the LPR and DPR. And we saw our mission only in convincing Lugansk and Donetsk to implement the Minsk Accords in the part that concerns them. And they are ready," she noted.
The upper house speaker noted that efforts of shelling, military action and terrorist attacks continued from Ukrainian territory. "There is already a chasm of distrust of the people of Lugansk and Donetsk to the current Ukrainian authorities," she stressed.
Lately, in the West and Ukraine, the claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" into Ukrainian territory are being touted increasingly more often. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as the empty and groundless escalation of tension, emphasizing that Russia does not represent a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences. According to him, Moscow is doing everything possible to help Kiev settle the Donbass conflict while adhering to the Normandy format and the Minsk Accords.