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Bulgarian President Rumen Radev with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during Zelensky’s visit on July 6, 2023.
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Messages like today’s from President Rumen Radev, according to whom Ukraine’s counteroffensive is the biggest strategic mistake, serve the “aggressor state”. This is stated in a statement of the Embassy of Ukraine on “Facebook”.
“The Embassy of Ukraine notes with great disappointment that such messages do not support diplomacy, but rather serve the interests of the aggressor state,” the statement said, after Radev told a conference organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation that Ukraine should have sat at the negotiating table when it was on the rise before the counter-offensive.
The head of state explains that he conveyed this to his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Sofia. Conversely, Russia now sensed a military upsurge and rejected the possibility of negotiations.
Zelensky was in Bulgaria at the beginning of July – a month after the counter-offensive began. In front of the cameras, the two exchanged some tense comments about the search for peace and weapons. Afterwards, however, Zelensky stated that this was the only difference between the two.
On Twitter, Zelensky did not mention the disagreements with Radev about weapons
“Sitting at the table with the aggressor who comes with the goal of destroying, erasing 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 statement said. “Until Russia (the choice of lowercase letter is deliberate in state institutions and media in Ukraine – note ed.) does not return to respecting the international legal order, until it withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine within the state and internationally recognized borders since 1991, there will be no peace in Europe.”
The full text of the statement:
“In connection with inquiries from representatives of the Bulgarian mass media regarding the statements of the Bulgarian head of state regarding the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Embassy of Ukraine notes with great disappointment that such messages do not support diplomacy, but rather serve the interests of the aggressor state.
The military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine began almost 10 years ago, in February 2014.
Today is the 635th day of Russia’s full-scale war, and Ukrainian citizens are heroically fighting against the aggressor and defending their freedom.
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.
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.
Sitting down at the table with the aggressor who comes with the goal of destroying, obliterating Ukrainian statehood, committing systematic genocide against the Ukrainian people before the eyes of the civilized world in the 21st century is an impossible option.
Until Russia returns to respecting the international legal order, until it withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine within the state and internationally recognized 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 is important to emphasize 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.
After the almost one hundred thousand registered crimes in Ukraine as evidence before the International Criminal Court, after the violations of all the norms of the conduct of war, after the nuclear blackmail, peace can and must be achieved exclusively and only under the conditions stipulated in the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine and supported by the international community.”
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