RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

West’s obsession with tearing Russia to pieces led to military operation - Medvedev

The Neanderthal anti-Russian prejudice of Western nations and their desire to tear Russia apart led to the need of performing the special military operation, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an article for the Izvestiya newspaper.

"Their convulsions are fed by the Neanderthal anti-Russian prejudice and the desire to create a newly appeared Frankenstein represented by Ukraine - a special ‘anti-Russia’," the politician noted, speaking about non-recognition of results of the referendum in Crimea by the collective West.

"What else can be said in this regard? The only thing: wise predecessors of recent stupid Western state-mongers say ‘Deus quos vult perdere dementat prius’ - whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Exactly this drive into hysterics and the obsession with tearing our country apart eventually led to the special military operation," Medvedev stressed.

** Ex-President names two dates of no return in relations with the West

Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia in 2008 supported by the West and unwillingness to recognize results of the referendum in Crimea in 2014 are points of no return, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an article for the Izvestiya newspaper.

"Two dates can be considered to be the points of no return. The first is fall of 2008, when the Western world supported the aggression of Georgia against the Ossetian people," the politician said. "The aggressor was repelled quickly and firmly at that time," Medvedev noted.

The second pivotal point is "spring of 2014, when the people of Crimea expressed their will at the legal referendum, having returned forever to the historical motherland," the official said. "It caused violent, impotent tantrum of the Western world, which continues until now," he added.

** Anti-NATO protests hit France

Multiple mass protests against France’s NATO membership and its continued support of Kiev were held on Sunday in the capital Paris and at other locations across the country.

he demonstrations, taking place for the second consecutive weekend, were organized by the right-wing Les Patriotes party, led by Florian Philippot, who personally attended the rally in Paris.

The politician claimed the event on Sunday, dubbed National March for Peace, attracted even more participants than last week, when some 10,000 showed up for a rally in the French capital. According to Philippot, smaller-scale anti-NATO protests were held at some 30 other locations across France as well.

Protesters marched through the streets of Paris, carrying a large banner reading "For Peace." The marchers called for the withdrawal of France from both the US-led NATO and from the EU, and urged a halt to supplying Ukraine with weaponry. The protesters also took jabs at the incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron, chanting "Macron get out!" – a slogan commonly used by assorted anti-government protesters throughout his presidency.

Following the march, the protesters held a rally led by Philippot, who was filmed defacing NATO and EU flags alongside his supporters. Footage of the event was shared by the politician himself on social media.

The politician has been actively staging protests against French membership in NATO and the EU since last fall, while arguing against the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Between 2012 and 2017, Philippot was the deputy head of the biggest opposition party in France, the National Rally, led until last year by Marine Le Pen. After leaving the National Rally, the 41-year-old politician established his own right-wing party, Les Patriotes.

France has been among the top supporters of Kiev in the ongoing conflict with Russia, which broke out a year ago. While Macron has repeatedly called for a diplomatic settlement of the hostilities, Paris has actively supplied assorted weaponry to Ukraine, including armored vehicles and advanced self-propelled howitzers.

** Thousands rally for peace in Italy

Several thousand people turned up for peace demonstrations in the Italian cities of Genoa and Milan on Saturday. Union members and left-wing activists claimed, among other things, that authorities in Rome have breached national law by sending weapons to Ukraine.

The rally in Genoa drew nearly 4,000 participants from across the country as well as from Switzerland and France, local media reported.

Organized by the Collective Autonomous Port Workers (CALP) group with the support of the Italian communist party, the protest took place under the slogan “Lower weapons, raise wages.”
CALP’s Riccardo Rudino was cited in the media as saying that the “conflict in Ukraine did not begin last year” but rather “in 2014, with the massacre of the Russian-speaking population in Donbass.”

The demonstrators filed through the port of Genoa, demanding an end to the use of the facility for arms shipments destined for Ukraine.

CALP spokesperson Jose Nivoi accused the Italian government of violating law 185 of 1990, which “imposed a ban on the import, export and transit of weapons from Italy to states at war.”

The group’s representatives also described how they had been networking with like-minded “associations and activists in various European cities.”

The procession went off without serious incidents, marred only by a few acts of vandalism at the hands of anarchists, who smeared and damaged several vehicles and broke windows in a bank.

A protest was also held on Saturday in Milan. Ruptly video news agency filmed several hundred people chanting slogans and waving flags, including those of Russia and the Donetsk People’s Republic. 

The demonstrations in Italy coincided with one in the German capital, Berlin. There, tens of thousands of people heeded the call of prominent Left Party politician Sahra Wagenknecht and author Alice Schwarzer.

Named the ‘Uprising for Peace,’ the protest called for peace talks to end hostilities in Ukraine. The participants also urged the German government to stop shipping weapons to Kiev.

Addressing her supporters, Wagenknecht criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government for allegedly trying to “ruin Russia,” and described Saturday’s protest as the start of a new peace movement in Germany.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's ground forces commander visits besieged Bakhmut to talk strategy, boost morale

Commander of Ukrainian ground forces Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi visited besieged Bakhmut to boost morale and talk strategy with units defending the town and surrounding villages in eastern Ukraine, the military said over the weekend.

Military analysts expect that Ukraine's forces will put their "maximum effort" in coming days into defending Bakhmut, which in recent months has seen some of the bloodiest attritional fighting of Russia's year-old invasion.

Russia has made the capture Bakhmut a priority in its strategy to take control of Ukraine's eastern Donbas industrial region.

"(Syrskyi) listened to the unit commanders tackling urgent problems, provided assistance in solving them, and supported the servicemen," the Ground Forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

The 57-year-old commander, one of Ukraine's most experienced, has been regarded as the mastermind behind the defeat of Russian forces as they advanced on Kyiv early in the war and in the Kharkiv region in September.

Now charged with the defence of Bakhmut, Syrskyi has made a number of trips to the town, maintaining the Kyiv's forces will hold it.

"A thoughtful system of engineering barriers, combined with a natural (hilly) landscape, has turned the area into a true impregnable fortress, at the walls of which not just a thousand of enemies had found death," Syrskyi said in early February.

Russia had made recent progress towards encircling Bakhmut, where only about 5,000 of 70,000 residents remain, but its failure to capture the town, deprived Russian President Vladimir Putin of the chance to declare a victory on Friday's first anniversary of his invasion Feb. 24.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces launched a number of counter-attacks and repulsed Russian forces around the village of Yahidne, after Russia's Wagner mercenary group claimed to have captured it and the village of Berkhivka.

The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces have destroyed Ukrainian "sabotage and reconnaissance groups," including in the area of Yahidne, while Russia's TASS state agency reported that Ukraine's forces blew up a dam just north of Bakhmut.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

The fierce battles along the front lines in Ukraine's south and east, especially near Bakhmut, now consist of crawling attempts by each side to move the line, sometimes just a few metres at a time.

The weekend Ukrainian counter-attacks to the north of Bakhmut have helped to stabilise the front there, military analysts said. But Moscow has been continuously throwing in new troops and equipment.

"Russia may start attacking from three sides from Monday," Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said in a social media video. "Ukraine puts maximum effort into holding Bakhmut."

Putin invaded Ukraine claiming it was necessary to protect Russian sovereignty, but Ukraine and its allies in the West say it was nothing more than an unprovoked land grab.

RT/TASS/Reuters