Ukrainian embassy: Bulgarian President Radev’s statements serve interests of Russia
Statements by Bulgarian President Roumen Radev on November 20 serve the interests of Russia, the aggressor state, the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia said in a commentary on Facebook.
Radev, speaking at a conference on Monday, said that Ukraine’s counter-offensive had been “the worst mistake from the point of view of strategic judgment” when it had been “the most suitable time for negotiations and the search for a peaceful solution”.
Radev, who during a presidential election campaign debate controversially said “Crimea is Russian” has a track record of opposing arms for Ukraine and has called for a “diplomatic solution”.
The Ukrainian embassy said of his November 20 statements that it notes with great disappointment that such such messages do not support diplomacy, but rather serve the interests of the aggressor state.
The embassy said that Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine began almost 10 years ago, in February 2014.
November 20 was the 635th day of Russia’s full-scale war, “and Ukrainian citizens are heroically fighting against the aggressor and defending their freedom,” it said.
All previous attempts at a peaceful and diplomatic settlement, with the signing of the Minsk Agreements-1 and Minsk Agreements-2, instead of fulfilling their main purpose, actually allowed Russia to prepare for a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022, the Ukrainian embassy said.
“Instead of peace and de-escalation as a result of the diplomatic understanding with the terrorist state, this period saw the outbreak of the worst and most destructive war in Europe since the Second World War,” it said.
“Sitting at the table with an aggressor who comes with the aim of destroying, obliterating Ukrainian statehood, committing systematic genocide against the Ukrainian people in front of the eyes of the civilized world in the 21st century is an impossible option.”
The embassy said that until Russia returns to respecting the international legal order, until it withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine within the state and internationally recognised borders of 1991, there will be no peace in Europe.
“Calls for peace and negotiations do not yield results in the face of terrorists encouraged by the Russian political leadership to mass murder civilians.”
It was important to emphasise that the liberation and protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity is the duty of the state and its armed forces, which is defined in the constitution of every modern democratic state, the embassy said.
“After the almost hundreds of thousands of registered crimes in Ukraine as evidence before the International Criminal Court, after the violation of all the norms of conducting war, after the nuclear blackmail, peace can and must be achieved exclusively and only under the conditions provided for in the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine and supported by the international community,” it said.
(Archive photo, of Ukrainian ambassador Olesya Ilashchuk presenting her credentials to Radev in April 2023: president.bg)
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