On July 17, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova held a briefing, the main topic of which, as usual, was the war against Ukraine. From the very tone of the speech, full of low-grade insults of the Ukrainian leadership and Western politicians, non-recognition of Ukrainian statehood, as well as a stream of fakes on the topic of history, one could conclude that the Kremlin wants to declare its rejection of any compromise to achieve peace in Europe. However, Maria Zakharova specifically articulated this message:
“Kyiv’s renunciation, with the assistance of the West, of the legal basis for the existence of Ukraine as an independent peaceful state has become a deliberate course of action by the Banderites who have established a neo-Nazi dictatorship, destroying everything Russian and becoming a threat to the security of Russia, all of Europe and the entire world. Therefore, the complete and irreversible eradication of the entire complex of reasons that led to the emergence of the Ukrainian crisis remains the main prerequisite for achieving a final and fair settlement of the conflict. The sooner this is understood, I am not sure at the office of the President of Ukraine, but certainly by their curators in London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels, the better.”
In principle, this statement can be considered Moscow’s official response to the statement by US President Donald Trump on giving Russia 50 days to conclude a peace agreement with Ukraine, made on July 14. The Kremlin is not going to abandon the “goals of the special military operation” and will continue military actions for as long as it deems necessary. The behaviour of Russian officials once again shows that these very “goals” are not just a propaganda construct for local use, but a real vision of the world from the Kremlin towers.
There is another interesting passage regarding Ukraine. Answering a question about the resumption of American arms supplies to Kyiv, Zakharova showed Moscow’s obvious dissatisfaction with this decision:
“It is obvious that the Kiev regime consistently perceives such decisions of the “collective West” as a literal signal to continue the war, as a rejection of peaceful aspirations, of the negotiation process. The promised additional arms supply to the Kyiv regime could provoke an escalation of criminal terrorist activity, which we have talked about a lot today, talking about how weapons supplied by the West are leaking from the territory of Ukraine. Moreover, this terrorist activity is carried out directly by Ukrainian armed groups, special services, nationalist structures, terrorist organizations that participate on the side of the Kyiv regime in the aforementioned conflict”.
It is obvious that the Kremlin will continue to try to promote narratives related to issues with arms control delivered to Ukraine. Firstly, statements about their alleged possible resale: supposedly in the future, weapons bought with money from Western countries may be directed against them, since Kyiv may resell them to unknown parties. Secondly, knowing the sensitivity of the population of Europe and even more of the USA to the issues of combating terrorism, this term is increasingly used by Moscow’s mouthpieces in relation to the actions of Ukraine, whose targeted actions against military facilities, including officers, on the territory of the Russian Federation are equated to terrorist acts. Which also indicates the Kremlin’s unwillingness to negotiate peace.
