00:00My question is about Ukraine.
00:04Yesterday, former President Trump met with President Zelensky.
00:10He promised that if he is elected, if he wins the elections in November, he will quickly
00:19resolve the issue of war.
00:22What are your comments on this and what do you think about this meeting?
00:27I understand it.
00:29Mr. Trump said several months ago that he would need 24 hours for this.
00:36The wording is different now, well, you know.
00:40We will welcome any initiatives that will lead to the desired result.
00:45And there can only be one result.
00:48This is a settlement of this problem based on eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian
00:52crisis.
00:55And the root causes of this crisis are, first of all, that despite the assurances given
01:01to us, NATO continued to expand.
01:06The West did not comply with its commitments, which were approved at the highest level in
01:12the OSCE, and which consisted in no one strengthening its security at the expense of the security
01:22of any other country, and that no organization in the OSCE area should claim dominance,
01:30NATO was doing exactly this, it was expanding, it was swallowing up states, it was developing
01:36their territories with its military equipment and infrastructure.
01:41And Ukraine was next in line.
01:44This created direct threats to the security of the Russian Federation.
01:49Because NATO was planning to create military bases in Crimea, on the Sea of Azov and deploy
01:55its weapons there, which would threaten the Russian Federation.
02:01We could not allow this.
02:02But this is not even the main thing, although the security of the state is always important.
02:08Security is needed not as some kind of abstraction, but as something that is necessary for ordinary
02:14people.
02:16Now the UN Secretary-General and his representative, when communicating with you, say that the
02:22UN position is unshakable, that it advocates for resolving the crisis as soon as possible
02:29on the basis of international law.
02:32The UN Charter and the territorial integrity of Ukraine, well, in general, the head of
02:39the Secretariat needs to know the Charter more deeply and in more detail.
02:46I touched on this at the General Assembly session just now, where I spoke at the plenary
02:52session.
02:54The most important thing for me in this Charter, and, apparently, the founding fathers of the
03:00UN thought the same, is that the very first article proclaims the need to respect the
03:06rights of every person, regardless of race, gender, language and religion.
03:11Our Western colleagues, for any reason and without any reason, put human rights in the
03:17foreground.
03:18In particular, they did everything to ensure that in the so-called pact of the future these
03:27rights were hypertrophied and brought almost to the forefront.
03:31And it even says there that the UN Human Rights Council should be endowed with some
03:37powers that do not depend on member states.
03:41But in the case of the Ukrainian crisis, the West does not remember human rights at all.
03:47I quoted to you the need to respect the rights of every person, regardless of language and
03:52religion, and I reminded the General Assembly today that the Russian language has been led
04:01legislatively exterminated in Ukraine, starting from early childhood education right up to
04:08universities.
04:10In the media, all Russian-language media have either been expelled from Ukraine or closed.
04:15In the cultural sphere, Russian-language books are being thrown out of libraries, as was
04:21the case in Hitler's Germany.
04:25And just recently a law was passed banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
04:31Moreover, the Constitution of Ukraine still states that the state ensures the rights of
04:41Russians and other national minorities, including education, and so on.
04:49But we cannot get an answer from either the West or the UN Secretary General.
04:56Why is everyone silent when there are now many initiatives floating around about approaches
04:59to a settlement?
05:01This is a security issue.
05:06From the point of view of the inadmissibility of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Alliance
05:10or any other military bloc.
05:13And a human rights issue.
05:15It is not about territories, as Zelensky asks.
05:19Give us the territories along the 1991 border.
05:23We are not talking about territories.
05:26We are talking about people who have lived on these lands for centuries, developed them,
05:32built factories, roads, ships, and much more.
05:35These are the real reasons.
05:38If Mr. Trump manages to repeal these laws we are talking about, then this will already
05:44be a step forward.
05:45It is very easy to do.
05:47You just need to take and vote.
05:50But there is another point that no one is mentioning now either.
05:54President Putin has repeatedly drawn attention to it.
05:58Zelensky's decree banning negotiations with Russia is in effect in Ukraine, therefore,
06:03I cannot even speculate on how they are going to organize this process.
06:10But our position is extremely clear.
06:15And they need to eliminate the root causes.
06:17Everyone knows about them.
06:18Good afternoon, Mr. Minister.
06:22Chinese television.
06:23There are two questions.
06:24First, I will ask very briefly.
06:26President Zelensky has repeatedly said here in this building that Russia is planning to
06:31attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
06:34How do you respond to this?
06:35We know that Brazil, China and other like-minded countries have created
06:45the Friends of Peace platform to mediate in resolving the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
06:50Is Russia considering any peacekeeping plans for the Global South?
06:53As for Mr. Zelensky's statements, well, I think everyone has long since gotten used
06:58to his impromptu remarks.
07:00By the way, when he played on stage and read out written texts, he did better.
07:06And his impromptu remarks are worse.
07:08By the way, when he was here, he stated that each item of the peace formula is based on
07:15the principles, purposes and norms of the UN Charter.
07:19By the way, he rudely described the Chinese-Brazilian initiative, he said that it is unclear why
07:27they put it forward.
07:29Maybe they want to get the Nobel Peace Prize for it, he added.
07:35That there are no different versions of the UN Charter for different parts of the world.
07:40There is no separate charter for BRICS.
07:42Or for the G7.
07:44For some reason, there is no separate Russian-Iranian UN Charter.
07:49Or no separate Chinese-Brazilian UN Charter.
07:52So, Zelensky appreciated the efforts that our Chinese and Brazilian colleagues are making
08:00with the best of intentions.
08:05We discussed their plans at the previous stage in contacts with colleagues.
08:10And I asked what the specific content of this initiative would be.
08:21In these Chinese-Brazilian items, all the words are correct.
08:25These are calls for peace, calls for justice.
08:28For the implementation of international law, well, no one argues with that.
08:34But no one has told me yet how they specifically plan to move towards peace.
08:43I just know that this issue is still under consideration.
08:50The creation of this Friends of Peace Group was announced, which did not include all the
08:55countries present at the meeting.
08:58Some did not show interest in this.
09:01This group was created here in New York at the level of permanent representatives, well,
09:05I don't know how seriously it is possible to deal with this issue from here.
09:14But the permanent representatives are talented people.
09:17We'll see what they create.
09:19The most important thing is what I said when answering the first question.
09:25Chairman Xi Jinping put forward not a Ukrainian, but a global security initiative in February
09:332023.
09:36There is a key phrase there.
09:43This initiative is dedicated to the settlement of any conflicts.
09:49Among the key methods for considering problems in a particular crisis region.
09:54It is directly stated there that it is necessary to agree on eliminating the root causes of
10:01the conflict.
10:09The root causes of the conflict in Ukraine are to draw the KIV regime into NATO.
10:15This goal remains on the agenda.
10:19Mr. Stoltenberg and other representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance regularly repeat
10:23this with enviable persistence.
10:25The second reason, of course, is what I said.
10:29Human rights.
10:31This is the extermination of the Russian language, Russian culture, Russian education.
10:36The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
10:39By the way.
10:41No one has banned the Arabic language in Israel.
10:45But Zelensky banned the Russian language.
10:48Although it is spoken not only by ethnic Russians.
10:52But also by the majority of the population of Ukraine.
10:59Specific people at the level of permanent representatives.
11:03Who will be engaged in concretizing this concept.
11:09They cannot ignore these arguments and these root causes, moreover.
11:16They will have to be guided by the principles of the UN Charter not selectively.
11:22But in their entirety and in all their interrelationships.
11:25There are also those very human rights that I mentioned.
11:29This is the principle of the UN Charter, which has been grossly violated.
11:33Even the Ukrainian constitution, I will repeat this again.
11:36Contains obligations to respect the rights of national minorities in all aspects and,
11:41of course.
11:44On interpreting the principle of territorial integrity.
11:50One cannot ignore its interrelation with the principle of self-determination of peoples.
11:54There is also a consensus on this matter.
11:57I have spoken to our Chinese, Brazilian and other colleagues about this.
12:04That back in 1970 the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a declaration in.
12:09Which it was decided.
12:16That it is necessary to respect the territorial integrity of those states whose governments
12:20represent all the people living in a given territory and respect the right to self-determination.
12:29Why did everyone take it calmly when Kosovo was unilaterally declared independent in 2008?
12:34The United States applauded this event, saying that it was a practical manifestation of the
12:39right of a nation to self-determination.
12:41Incidentally, no military actions were conducted in Kosovo.
12:46A few years later, in 2014, after a bloody coup in Ukraine, the fascists, who seized
12:53power went to war against Crimea.
12:55And then Crimea held a referendum, the Americans said that this was not possible because the
13:00principle of territorial integrity was in effect here.
13:03It is very important that those who sincerely want to help find a solution to this crisis
13:11understand the true reasons.
13:13We should rely on the UN Charter.
13:15Not like Mr. Dujarric, who said that we should be guided by the UN Charter and the principle
13:22of territorial integrity of Ukraine.
13:26But we should rely on the UN Charter in its entirety and in all the interrelationships
13:30of its principles.
13:32This is my request.
13:34This is my message to those who will work in this peace group.
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