LETTER: Russian targets are all military

There is a flow of sentimental and compassionate remarks on the alleged sufferings of the Ukrainians these days, some of which have been published in Business Day’s Letters section. Yet most commentators seem to misinterpret the state of affairs and miss the forest for the trees.

Russia is conducting a special military operation aimed at demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine. All strikes are aimed exclusively at military infrastructure. Russia has no intent to occupy Ukraine or do harm to its civilians, or to those among the Ukrainian military who choose to lay down their arms.

One of the main goals of the operation is to put an end to the unbearable sufferings of people of Donbass, who had been indiscriminately bombarded, threatened, tortured and humiliated by the Kyiv regime and its neo-Nazi battalions, almost on a daily basis. The people of Donbass, even children, have had to get used to living in the basements of their houses to shelter from artillery attacks.

It is symptomatic that for almost eight years the “free press” and “human rights advocates” have been failing to notice that most civilian casualties are in Donbass. Have you ever heard the UK, Germany, France, US or other self-proclaimed paragons of democracy and humanism condemn Kyiv’s punitive operations against civilians, even after mass graves were discovered? Does that mean that the lives of people in Donbass are not important in the eyes of the West? That’s as alarming as the idea that once served as the basis of such evils of the past as colonialism, Nazism and apartheid.

There is a plethora of evidence (including by Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe monitors) of Ukrainian armed forces shelling almost 3-million people in Donbass who are guilty only of protecting their right to speak the Russian language. Guided by moral and humanitarian imperatives, our country is doing everything it can to protect innocent civilians and stop Nazism in Europe once again.

Alexander Arefiev
Embassy of Russia in SA

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