Interview with H.E. Mr. Dmitry Lobach, Ambassador of Russia
Your Excellency, the conflict in Ukraine is now in its fifth year.
What are its causes? When could it come to an end and under what conditions?
The only possible way to settle the Ukrainian crisis is to eliminate its root causes.
It started when radical nationalists seized power in Ukraine in 2014, after a coup d’etat instigated by the West.
One of its main reasons and purposes was to break off the centuries-old fraternal relations between Russians and Ukrainians inciting enmity between two nations that emerged from the same historical cradle.
Another reason is the West’s attempt to make Ukraine a member of the NATO military alliance, which contradicts fundamentally Russia’s security interests.
This is not for the first time when our strategic adversaries are seeking to use Ukrainians as a tool in their anti-Russian policy.
They are committed to continue a proxy war against Russia until the last Ukrainian.
To this end, they supply Kiev with weapons, intelligence data and target designations for drones and missiles launched into Russian territory.
Until the root causes of the conflict are eliminated and Ukraine ceases to pose a threat to Russia’s security, any talk of a ceasefire or a truce are pointless.
Could you please comment on how it all began.
The coup d’etat in February 2014 (known as the Euromaidan) was purely a nationalist and anti-Russian geopolitical project carried out under slogans of “slaughter all the Russians” and “hang all the Russians”, which are still encouraged by the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.
Against this backdrop, Russians in Crimea and Donbass, who are the majority there, did not recognize the new authorities in Kiev.
By exercising the right to self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter and following legitimate referendums they decided to withdraw from Ukraine and declare their independence.
Later, they requested reunification with Russia and protection from Ukraine.
Russia agreed and couldn’t have done otherwise.
So, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol became integral parts of Russia in 2014.
Eight years later and after cruel battles between Donbass militia and the regular Ukrainian army, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics also declared independence and joined Russia at their request.
The civil war in Donbass claimed thousands civilian lives.
All Moscow’s efforts to achieve peace through a political solution failed.
The ill-fated Minsk agreements signed by the Ukrainian president and the leaders of France and Germany in 2015 proved to be a sham from the very beginning.
They were not intended to bring peace.
The purpose was to save Kiev from immediate military defeat and gain the time necessary to rearm the Ukrainian army.
Further escalation in Donbass, threats against Russia and disregard by NATO for our proposals on collective security in Europe that would take into account Russia’s legitimate concerns and interests – all these became a trigger for the Special Military Operation (SMO) launched by Russia in February 2022.
What is the Ukrainian radical nationalism that you have mentioned?
There are many manifestations of the Ukrainian radical nationalism.
Long before the Euromaidan, the authorities in Kiev carried out broad glorification campaign with a view to changing society’s attitude towards Ukrainian nationalists and former Hitler’s henchmen during the WW II – even those who were designated war criminals by the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1945–1946.
Some leaders of the Ukrainian nationalists who fought alongside the Nazi Wehrmacht against the Soviet army were proclaimed national heroes.
The revival of radical nationalism and even Nazism in Ukraine is a result of public policy, one the main goals of which is to eradicate everything related to Russia and even erase Russia from the world map.
When nationalists seized power in 2014 the country lost its political and moral compasses.
This is evident not only from radical views and xenophobia but also from methods they use to achieve their goals: threats, intimidation, hatred, extreme brutality, ethnic discrimination, persecution and elimination of opponents, etc.
Examples abundant. On May 2, 2014, 42 pro-Russian activists were burned alive by Ukrainian nationalists in the Trade Unions Building in Odessa.
No one has been held accountable. Everything related to Russia is particularly hated – history, language, literature, art, culture. Russophobia has become a state ideology and, strange as it may be, the only raison d’être for many Ukrainian politicians.
Even before the SMO, the hatred towards Russia was off the charts.
Today, Russian-language schools are out of law across the whole country.
The Russian language, which is a mother tong for the majority of Ukrainians is out of law too, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) faces unprecedented pressure because of its close canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
People who keep loyal to Russian identity are stigmatized by nationalist rulers as enemies who are not deserved to be treated as human beings. In their terminology they are “biological waste”.
Another cruel example.
Last August, fighters from Ukrainian nationalist battalions committed a heinous crime when they tortured a monk of the Sviatogorsk Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) located in the part of Donbass occupied by the Ukrainian army.
He was stabbed to death because of refusal to repeat a Nazi salute.
Two other monks were seriously wounded.
What are objectives of the Special Military Operation?
The SMO was launched in February 2022 to defend Russians and the Russian-speaking population in Donbass and Novorossiya, protect national security, and eliminate military threats that have piled up for last decades due to the West’s aggressive policy.
Fight against terrorism is among Russia’s main tasks as the Kiev regime does not shy away from such crimes.
Defeated on a battlefield Ukraine destroys Russia’s civilian infrastructure in revenge.
More than 6500 civilians became victims of the Ukrainian armed attacks in 2025.
Many facilities have been damaged in 2026. Last May, drones demolished a dormitory of the teachers college killing 21 students in Donbass.
The Ukrainian terrorists are also targeting Russia’s vital transport infrastructure, including ships carrying export grain, and this has a negative impact on global food security.
Recently, 214 vessels suffered damage due to the Ukrainian attacks. 96 of them were flying foreign flags. 18 sailors were killed.
The global community has legitimate concerns over repeated strikes by Ukraine against the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and other nuclear facilities as such attacks may trigger a large-scale radiological and environmental disaster.
To curb such Kiev’s madness is also part of the Special Military Operation.
Does this mean that hostilities will continue until Ukraine’s surrender?
In this context, we need to guarantee strategic security.
We also need to ensure the safety of Russians living in Ukraine, save them from ethnocide and protect their right to their own language and freedom of religion and belief.
Russia would prefer to resolve such issues by political means.
However, when diplomacy proves futile we will continue to achieve our goals within the framework of the SMO.
Russia has never dismissed a dialogue provided that the commitment should be mutual.
So far, Ukraine and its foreign sponsors are not ready for negotiations.
On the contrary, they continue aggressive rhetoric and hostile actions that fuel escalation.
Our Western opponents insist on a temporary ceasefire or a truce rather than on a comprehensive resolution of the conflict as they need a respite to build up Ukraine’s military capabilities and then continue their dangerous game against Russia.
For Zelensky, the war with Russia is a matter of personal political survival and also a well-spring of enrichment by unlimited access to the huge foreign aid.
For the sponsors of Zelensky regime the conflict in Ukraine is a long-awaited opportunity to settle scores with Russia for failures and defeats in the past and a chance to make good money on military supplies.
They are even trying to make their citizens believe that Russia poses threat to NATO. Any detection of unknown drones in Europe is portrayed as the Russian trace.
The latest allegation was made by Germany in connection with an incident at Leipzig Airport last month.
So far, the opponents do not share our willingness to dialogue.
At this juncture Russia will continue to protect its sovereignty and security by all available means relying on itself and its allies among the Global South.
