- Let's get away from Ukraine. Let's move on to New York. Late at night, the UN Security Council held a meeting there devoted to the fourth anniversary of the Minsk Agreement on Donbass, which isn't observed by Ukraine. There aren't any Russian troops in Ukraine. This is a fact, not an opinion. This was stated especially to Ukrainian ambassador Yelchenko by his personal request. Moreover, the statement was made by the head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. He deserves trust. Thus, we consider the issue closed. In addition, our ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, had to remind his German counterpart that Russia liberated Minsk and took Berlin.
Christoph Heusgen, German Ambassador to the UN: "I was listening to Vasily and I got the impression that it was Ukraine that attacked Russia and not the other way round. Our Russian friends have been saying this for years and Vasily repeated it yet again that this is merely an internal conflict in Ukraine following the military coup. We know in reality it was a Russian invasion. The Russian military was directly involved in the occupation of Minsk and the occupation of Donetsk. Russian television reported that on February 23d, 2014, President Putin had ordered the special forces to seize Crimea. Crimea is still occupied, Donbass is still occupied. And all this with the help of the myth about "green men", or that someone there "took fate into their hands"? No, it was Russian soldiers.”
Vasily Nebenzya: "My friend Christoph, it seems, had a Freudian slip, and said that Russia 'took Minsk' in 2015. Russia did take Berlin, I remember that, this was earlier. Before that we liberated Minsk. But in 2015, we didn't take Minsk and we didn't intend to. Our friends, brothers, allies live there. We don't have any plans to take anything or invade any place. It's not our method. Intervention is your method, as we can see very well now with the example of a certain Latin American country."
“The 35,000-strong armed force in occupied Donbass is supported by more than 2,100 members of the Russian military mainly filling key command duties. Many of them gained much combat experience in Syria. The overall strength of the strike force on the Russia-Ukraine border, including the troops in the occupied territories and the ones adjacent to Donbass and Crimea, is 87,750 personnel.”
Vasily Nebenzya: "I'd like to seize the opportunity and ask Mr. Apakan and Mr. Sajdik, they are here with us, how many Russian troops they found in Donbass, if any, whether they're aware of the figures the Ukrainian ambassador has shared with us and whether they can confirm them".
Ertugrul Apakan, Chief Monitor of SMM: "To avoid misunderstandings, I want to say that Russian troops aren't mentioned in the report. There aren't any personal comments. There are only the facts which we reported to the states".
- Well, Vadim, are we closing the case? There aren't any Russian troops in Donbass. I don't know how to say it in Ukrainian, but there aren't any, and now it's officially recognized.
Vadim Tryukhan, Public Person, Ukraine: You won't believe me, but I stayed up late and listened to the statements in the original.
- All of them? In German as well?
- You know, it was translated into English, Russian, Chinese, and so on. I don't know Chinese but I do know English and Russian so spare me your witty remarks. At the end of the meeting, the following was posted on Facebook (запрещена в РФ): "The League of Nations before dissolution and war". I got the impression the Security Council has become an impotent agency, which due to the presence of Russia there…
- It's impotent because they allowed Germany and Ukraine who barely have any rights there to sit there.
- It can't pass any resolutions. I noticed something. First of all, I've been in diplomacy for 15 years and I've never seen this harsh, impudent attitude from a highest-ranked diplomat like Mr. Nebenzya towards Germany which has been a democratic state for more than 70 years now.
- So what's wrong with the attitude? Did we liberate Minsk? We did. Did we take Berlin? We did.
- Germany is Russia's second largest trading partner. Russia is seriously dependent on its market and its money. And he said it so arrogantly "We took Berlin".
- But, Vadim, we did take it.
