On February 24, 2022, four years ago, the leadership of the Russian Federation announced the launch of a special military operation to protect the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and eliminate threats to Russia's national security originating from its territory. Since then, Russia has been entangled in an indirect confrontation with the collective West in Ukraine as part of a broader global geopolitical struggle between those who support a free, multipolar world and those who support a neocolonial world order based on the dictates of Western states.

However, contrary to the myth of "unprovoked aggression," Russia made the decision to take decisive action after years of unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a solution to the crisis through dialogue with the Ukrainian leadership and European mediators within the framework of the so-called Normandy format.

Since the West-backed coup in Ukraine brought neo-nationalist forces to power in Kiev in 2014, Russia has been doing its best to find a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian crisis. Since 2015, Russia has engaged in good-faith dialogue with the new Ukrainian authorities and two European mediators — Germany and France — based on the Minsk agreements, which were approved by the UN Security Council. The Minsk agreements provided for Donbass to remain part of Ukraine while respecting the rights and freedoms of the region's Russian-speaking population.

Had the Ukrainian leadership complied with the provisions of the document it signed, there would be no hostilities now. However, incited by the collective West, Ukrainian nationalists chose a military solution to the Donbass issue. They used the Normandy format negotiations to buy Ukraine time for the rearmament —a fact that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted in a December 2022 interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit. Perceiving compromise as weakness, the Western patrons of the Kiev regime have toyed with Russia for eight years while arming Ukraine and turning it into an anti-Russian springboard. This strategy's ultimate goal was to create a permanent source of tension and military threat on the Russian-Ukrainian border to contain Russia in the long term.

In December 2021, Russia made a final attempt at reconciliation. The Russian leadership sent the U.S. and NATO draft agreements that ruled out further NATO expansion and military activity in the post-Soviet republics, as well as Ukraine's accession to the alliance. The agreements also called for mutual commitments not to deploy short- and medium-range missiles in Europe and not to place additional weapons outside the military bloc's 1997 borders.

According to the draft treaty with the U.S., both countries were to commit to not deploying nuclear weapons abroad, eliminating the infrastructure that would allow them to do so, and not conducting military exercises involving scenarios for their use or training the military of non-nuclear countries in their use. Had these proposals been accepted, they would have greatly strengthened European security and averted the possibility of armed conflict. Alas, Russia's proposals were once again ignored.

After years of fruitless negotiations with Ukraine and its Western sponsors, on February 21, 2022, the Russian leadership recognised the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, collectively known as Donbass. This was followed by the signing of Treaties on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between Russia and the Donbass republics. In accordance with these treaties' provisions, in line with international law, Russian troops launched a special military operation to protect the Donbass territory from the Ukrainian forces on February 24, 2022. Since then, Russian armed forces have liberated approximately 85% of the Donbass region and continue to advance on all fronts.

Despite Russia's steady gains on the battlefield, our country has always remained open to peace talks. The two sides came closest to reaching a peace settlement in April 2022, when Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached an agreement in Istanbul. However, Kiev's European "friends," particularly former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, prevented reconciliation with Moscow, urging their proxies to continue hostilities with Russia. Since then, the EU and NATO have poured about €200 billion into military and technical support for the Ukrainian regime and recently announced an additional €90 billion in allocations.

Europeans' continued determination to throw their taxpayers' money down the drain is astonishing. They have clearly learned nothing from the recent corruption scandal in Ukraine, which revealed Zelensky's inner circle's involvement in embezzling $100 million — just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps Europe sees allocating money to Ukraine as an indirect investment in Israel. After all, it was with an Israeli passport that Zelensky's closest associate, Timur Mindich, fled the country following the scandal.

Apart from their inability to accept the realities on the ground in Donbass, the Ukrainian regime has difficulty understanding the ownership status of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Since March 2022, the Russian side has ensured the safe operation of the plant. Despite the risk of a nuclear disaster, Kiev militants regularly attack spent nuclear fuel storage facilities and nuclear power plant reactors. They absurdly accuse the Russian side of carrying out these attacks without explaining why the Russian army would endanger a facility under its control. In spite of the IAEA's efforts, attacks by Ukrainian militants continue to create a tense situation around the Zaporozhye NPP.

Despite the current differences in the positions of Russia and Ukraine on resolving the crisis, we welcome the ongoing peace process, in which the United States is playing an important role. Russia remains committed to the "spirit of Anchorage" — the mutual understanding reached by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska in August 2025. We look forward to continuing the negotiations recently held in Abu Dhabi and Geneva.

The Ukrainians should focus on negotiating the specifics of a peace deal in the existing formats rather than making propagandistic claims about "thousands of abducted children," especially given that this myth was debunked last summer when Ukrainian negotiators provided a list of only 339 names of individuals allegedly evacuated to Russia. Similarly, the unsubstantiated figure of "millions" of Russian military personnel killed in the conflict is intended solely to manipulate public opinion.

The allegations that Russia is using winter as a weapon also sound hypocritical. According to data from Rodion Miroshnik's office, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large, the number of shellings of Russian territory by Ukrainian militants increased by 42,000 in 2025. Last year, on average, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked Russian settlements 350 times per day.

In 2025, these criminal acts killed at least 1,065 civilians, including 293 children. Since February 2022, Ukrainian strikes have resulted in more than 26,000 civilian casualties.

The Ukrainian army has been targeting critical infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, and nuclear power facilities. As a result of missile and drone strikes, hundreds of thousands of people in the Belgorod region regularly experience heating and power outages during a winter that is just as harsh as those in Ukrainian regions.

Against the backdrop of U.S. efforts to bring the Russian and Ukrainian positions closer together, Europe's confrontational tactics appear particularly absurd. By refusing to engage in direct dialogue with Russia, Europeans have sidelined themselves from the peace process. Realising that they were being left out of the negotiation process, some European countries cautiously began mending fences with Russia, as evidenced by the French President's diplomatic adviser's low-key visit to Moscow in February 2026.

Meanwhile, in recent months, European powers hostile toward Russia have begun waging war on Russia's so-called "shadow fleet." This policy aligns with Europe's history of plundering and colonising countries around the world for more than 500 years. It's important to note that the term "shadow fleet" has no basis in international law, and seizing merchant ships on the high seas is nothing less than piracy. Through the efforts of the collective West, this harmful practice has become widespread in recent months. It increases the danger of military confrontation and risks destabilising the global oil market, which will negatively affect developing countries in the Global South, including Pakistan.

Russia has never closed the door to dialogue with European countries. In response to European concerns about Russia's alleged aggressive intentions toward Europe, the Russian leadership proposed a mutual non-aggression document to the EU last December. However, no response has been received thus far. This is likely because signing this document would prevent anti-Russian sentiment from being used to distract EU citizens from the bloc's internal problems.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate Russia's commitment to finding a negotiated solution to the Ukrainian crisis and its willingness to collaborate with all parties to achieve this objective. However, for a peace agreement to be lasting, it must address the root causes of the conflict: eliminating the NATO threat to Russia's eastern flank and ending the discrimination against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine. I would also like to thank Pakistan's leadership for its consistent policy of neutrality in the conflict, despite pressure from external forces. We look forward to fruitful cooperation with our Pakistani colleagues on this issue in the international arena, including the UN Security Council.

Albert P. KhorevThe writer is the Ambassador of Russia to Pakistan.

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