"So, during the events on the Maidan in Kiev in 2013–2014, Russia repeatedly offered its assistance in a constitutional resolution of the crisis, which was actually organized
from the outside. Let's return to the chronology of events at the end of February 2014.
On February 18, armed clashes began in Kiev, provoked by the opposition. A number of buildings, including the city hall and the House of Trade Unions, were set on fire. On February 20, unknown snipers opened fire on protesters and law enforcement officers,
that is, those who were preparing the armed coup did everything to push the situation further towards violence and radicalization. And those people who were on the streets of Kiev in those days and expressed dissatisfaction with the then authorities were deliberately
used for their selfish purposes, as cannon fodder. They are doing exactly the same today, mobilizing and sending people to be slaughtered. And yet, there was an opportunity for a civilized way out of the situation at that time.
It is known that on February 21, an agreement was signed between the then President of Ukraine and the opposition on the settlement of the political crisis. Its guarantors, as you know, were official representatives of Germany, Poland, and France. The agreement
provided for a return to a parliamentary-presidential form of government, the holding of early presidential elections, the formation of a government of national trust, as well as the withdrawal of law enforcement forces from the center of Kiev and the opposition’s
surrender of weapons.
I will add that the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law excluding the criminal prosecution of protest participants. Such an agreement, which would have allowed stopping the violence and returning the situation to the constitutional field, was in place. This agreement
was signed, although in Kiev and in the West they also prefer not to remember it.
Today, I will say more about another important fact, which also has not been publicly mentioned before, namely – literally in the same hours on February 21, a conversation took place at the initiative of the American side with my American counterpart. [
OBAMA] The essence was as follows: the American leader unequivocally supported the Kiev agreement between the authorities and the opposition. Moreover, he called it a real breakthrough, a chance for the Ukrainian people to ensure that the violence did not
go beyond all conceivable limits.
Furthermore, in the course of the conversations, we jointly worked out the following formula: Russia will try to persuade the then President of Ukraine to behave as restrained as possible, not to use the army or law enforcement against the protesters. And
the US, accordingly, it was said, would call on the opposition to calm down, to free administrative buildings, so that the streets would calm down.
All this was supposed to create conditions for life in the country to return to normal, within the constitutional and legal field. And in general, we agreed to work together for a stable, peaceful, and normally developing Ukraine. We fully kept our word.
The then President of Ukraine Yanukovych, who, in fact, did not plan to use the army, nevertheless did not do this, and moreover, even withdrew additional police units from Kiev.
And what did the Western colleagues do? On the night of February 22 and then throughout the following day, when President Yanukovych went to Kharkov, where a congress of deputies from the southeastern regions of Ukraine and Crimea was to be held, the radicals,
despite all the agreements and guarantees from the West (both from Europe and, as I just said, from the US), seized control of the Rada building by force, took over the Presidential Administration, and seized the government. And not a single guarantor of all
these agreements on political settlement – neither the United States nor the Europeans – lifted a finger to fulfill their obligations, to call on the opposition to vacate the seized administrative buildings, and to renounce violence. It is clear that such
a turn of events not only suited them, it seems that they were also the authors of the development of events in this vein.
Also, on February 22, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada, in violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, adopted a resolution on the so-called self-removal of the then President Yanukovych from the post of President and appointed early elections for May 25. That is,
an armed coup, provoked from outside, was completed. Ukrainian radicals, with the tacit consent and direct support of the West, thwarted all attempts to peacefully resolve the situation.Then we urged Kiev and the Western capitals to start a dialogue with the
people in the southeast of Ukraine, to respect their interests, rights, and freedoms. No, the regime that came to power as a result of the coup chose war, in the spring and summer of 2014 launched punitive actions against Donbass. Russia again called for peace.
We did everything to resolve the acute problems that arose within the framework of the Minsk agreements, but the West and the Kiev authorities, as I have already emphasized, did not intend to implement them. Although in words, Western colleagues, including
the head of the White House, assured us that the Minsk agreements are important and that they are committed to the processes of their implementation. That, in their opinion, this will allow us to get out of the situation in Ukraine, stabilize it, and take
into account the interests of the residents of the east. Instead, they actually organized a blockade of Donbass, as I have already said. The Armed Forces of Ukraine were consistently prepared for a full-scale operation to destroy the Donetsk and Lugansk People's
Republics.