RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine conflict began in 2008 – Putin

The West provoked the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine by luring Kiev with the prospect of NATO membership. This move drastically changed the security situation on the continent, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. The current standoff began not in 2022 but in 2008, he added, speaking to local community leaders from across Russia.

Putin then cited a former Czech president, who, according to Putin, has “recently” admitted that the “war” between Kiev and Moscow started in summer 2008 when the US-led bloc decided to “open its doors to Ukraine and Georgia.” It is unclear whether Putin was speaking about Milos Zeman, who had enjoyed close relations with Moscow for many years but sharply condemned Russia in February 2022 following the start of its military campaign against Kiev. It is also unclear which exact statement the Russian president was referring to.

Speaking to local community heads, the president stated that the 2008 NATO decision “drastically changed the situation in Eastern Europe.” Putin also noted that when Ukraine became an independent state in the early 1990s, it proclaimed its neutrality.

The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, adopted in July 1990, announced that the then-Soviet Socialist Republic declared “its intention to become … a permanently neutral state that does not take part in any military blocs and sticks to the non-nuclear principles: not to accept, produce or acquire nuclear weapons.”

The situation started to change rapidly after the Western-backed 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev. Later the same year, the Ukrainian parliament – the Verkhovnaya Rada – adopted amendments to its laws, in which its neutral status was abandoned. The amendments were introduced by then-president Petr Poroshenko.

In 2017, accession to NATO was declared Ukraine’s foreign policy priority under new legislation. Two years later, Ukrainian lawmakers amended the nation’s constitution to declare “the strategic course on acquiring full membership in the EU and NATO” the “basis of internal and foreign policy.”

Russia has repeatedly expressed its concerns over NATO encroachment towards its borders and called it a national security threat. Prior to the outbreak of the current conflict, Moscow came forward with a comprehensive plan for security guarantees in Europe.

Submitted in December 2021, the proposal included demands that NATO officially bar Ukraine from ever becoming a member of the military bloc and for NATO to withdraw its forces to where they were before the alliance expanded eastward in 1997. The plan, aimed at defusing tensions in Europe, also called on the US-led bloc to pledge not to expand further East.

Moscow also demanded that the US withdraw nuclear weapons it had deployed to the territory of its non-nuclear allies in Europe, as well as all the relevant rapid deployment infrastructure. The overture was largely rejected by the US and its allies.

** NATO chief describes battlefield situation in Ukraine as difficult

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has described the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine as extremely difficult for the Ukrainian army and called for not underestimating Russia.

"The situation on the battlefield is extremely difficult. The Russians are now pushing on many frontlines. And of course, the big offensive that the Ukrainians launched last summer didn't give all the results we all hoped for. And we see how Russia is now building up," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "Russia is pushing hard. And this is serious and we should never underestimate Russia."

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-governmental organization that meets annually to discuss topical issues related to politics, economics and public life.

The 54th annual meeting of the WEF is taking place in Davos from January 15 to 19 under the theme "Rebuilding Trust." It brings together business executives, political leaders and experts from more than 120 countries (a total of 2,800 participants). The Russian side is not represented at the current meeting in Davos, as the organizers did not send it an invitation, just like in 2023.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Kharkiv, 17 injured

Two Russian missiles struck a residential area in the centre of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv on Tuesday, injuring 17 people, two of them seriously, and badly damaging homes, local officials said.

Rescue teams were sifting through piles of rubble to establish whether others were hurt. The city's mayor described two "powerful explosions" and said at least 10 dwellings had been damaged.

Ukraine's Emergency Services, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said one of the missiles had hit a three-storey building that had previously housed a medical centre.

Fires were extinguished in two buildings and residential and other buildings sustained damage.

Regional Police Chief Volodymyr Tymoshko told public broadcaster Suspilne that one of the missiles had hit a roadway.

Emergency services posted online photos showing rescue teams poring over piles of smashed building materials, tackling fires, scrambling up ladders to damaged upper storeys and helping evacuees board minibuses.

Kharkiv Regional Governor Oleh Synehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said 17 people had been injured. Fourteen were in hospital, including two women who were seriously hurt.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, also writing on Telegram, said the missiles struck "precisely where there is no military infrastructure and precisely where there are in fact residences."

"There are at least 10 damaged buildings. Rescue teams are continuing to go through the rubble. And there is plenty of rubble."

Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, has been a frequent target of attacks, but in the space of the nearly two-year-old conflict, the city has not fallen into Russian hands. Russian missiles hit a hotel in the city last week, injuring 11 people.

RT/Tass/Reuters