What were the reasons for Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine?

In order to understand the current situation around Ukraine, let’s be very clear: the Russian special military operation has been neither unprovoked nor unjustified as our critics repeat time and again.

It was precisely provoked by a deliberate decades-long NATO expansion eastwards moving the military potential of the bloc closer to the Russian borders in violation of its own commitments. It was accompanied by the US unilateral withdrawal from basic strategic regimes (AMD, INF and Open Skies treaties, to name a few) as well as the Western intended attempts to play the Ukrainian card against Russia by supporting the anti-constitutional coup in Kiev in February 2014 bringing to power the extreme anti-Russian nationalists and Neo-Nazis, who ultimately were preparing to solve the issue of Donbass—the region that since then have been resisting the policy of Kiev—by force.

The Western curators of the regime chose to turn a blind eye on genocide against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and to ignore Moscow’s red lines with regard to militarization of the country by continuously supplying thousands of tons of military equipment. Don’t buy the mantra that NATO is a non-aggressive defensive alliance. Towards Russia it has always been both aggressive and hostile hiding the incessant expansion behind convenient rhetoric of its voluntary nature. Russia has been identified in NATO Charter as an enemy that says it all.

The Russian special military operation is the extreme step we had to take after Washington and other NATO members dismissed the Russian proposals for negotiations on security guarantees according to the commonly agreed principle of indivisibility of security.

In such circumstances, Russia was left with no other choice but to respond accordingly. Our primary goals are to protect the people of Donetsk and Lugansk (according to the treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance signed between Russia and these republics after their recognition by Moscow in February 2022), demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, which should retain its neutral and non-nuclear status and refrain from joining any military alliance.

Russia’s military operation is not designed to occupy Ukraine, destroy i