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Ukraine War

Russia says co-existence not possible with Ukraine’s current ‘regime’

Russia says co-existence not possible with Ukraine’s current ‘regime’
Ukrainian servicemen from the assault brigade 'Bureviy' (Hurricane), a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, fire 82mm mortar during their military training ahead of their deployment to the frontline, at a shooting range north of Kyiv, Ukraine, 08 November 2023, amid the Russian invasion. The 'Bureviy' is one of nine assault brigades, part of Ukraine's 'Offensive Guard'. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine announced in February 2023 the formation of assault brigades, which can be joined by volunteers, aimed at strengthening Ukraine's defense and 'liberating the occupied territories' from Russian forces. Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory in February 2022, starting a conflict that has provoked destruction and a humanitarian crisis. EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Russia cannot co-exist with the current "regime" in Kyiv but Moscow can resist the might of NATO for as long as it needs to fully demilitarise Ukraine, a senior Russian diplomat said on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a major European land war and the most serious confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Russia now controls 17.5% of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory. A Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed to make any significant gains this year against Russian forces.

“The current regime (in Kyiv) is absolutely toxic, we do not see any options for co-existence with it at the moment,” Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik told reporters in Moscow.

His post was created to collect evidence about alleged Ukrainian crimes against civilians.

Miroshnik said Ukraine had carried out crimes against civilians and had breached human rights while NATO had supplied forbidden weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, a charge that Moscow denies.

Miroshnik said Russia could resist the U.S.-led NATO military alliance as long as was needed to defeat Ukrainian forces in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” (SMO), adding that the West would eventually lose interest and the current authorities in Kyiv would collapse.

“As soon as the danger is liquidated, this can be considered to be the achievement of the SMO’s goals,” Miroshnik said. “We can resist NATO just as much as we need to fulfill the tasks that the president has formulated.

President Vladimir Putin presents the war as part of a much broader struggle with the United States, which the Kremlin elite says aims to cleave Russia apart, grab its vast natural resources and then turn to settling scores with China.

However the West casts Putin as a war criminal and a dictator waging an imperial-style land grab that has weakened Russia, forged a stronger sense of statehood in Ukraine and revived the NATO alliance by giving it a mission.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)

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  • Beyond Fedup says:

    If anyone can’t exist with the other it is the evil mass-murderer Putin! This diabolical, bestial and blood-thirsty thug (and thief to boot) has the blood of many hundreds of thousand innocents on his wicked hands and deranged mind – Chechnyians, Syrians, Georgians and Ukrainians, let alone hundreds, if not thousands of his own countrymen. The evil, treacherous and murderous DNA of Stalin/Hitler runs deep in this monster and appeasing him, as history has shown countless times, only leads to catastrophic problems, death and destruction later on. The free world has to stand up to this devil incarnate and the fight that Ukraine is waging to have human rights, be free and democratic is very much our fight. (This of course excludes the spineless and hypocritical Cyril and his revolting anc, who are nothing but fawning poodles to Putin and murderous dictators). Today it is Ukraine, tomorrow the Baltic states, Poland etc. Anyone and nation that wants to be free and chart its own course is game for this evil warlord. He wants to recreate the tyrannical, bestial, failed, miserable and murderous ex- Soviet empire because this obnoxious nothing-nik’s brittle and false ego demands it so. The free world has to stand up to this vile psychopath, draw the line and let Ukraine now into NATO or give Ukraine what they need to finish the job. Enough of this pussy-footing and walking on eggs lest they upset this KGB thug. He only understands and respects one language – STRENGTH!

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