Sir, – The editorial "Relations hit a new nadir" (March 31st) necessitates a brief comment, since it does hit a real nadir in the Russophobic line of this newspaper.
The sad truth is that there is a war in Ukraine – it has been waged by the Kiev government for eight years now against the people of Donbass. The Irish Times did not notice this tragedy, and it preferred to play to the tune of the Western governments which since 2014 nurtured the ultra-nationalistic, Nazi-supported regime in Ukraine. The Irish Times and the likes in the Western media for a long time closed their eyes on the rise of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the crackdown there on the Russian population, Russian language and Russian way of life.
The Irish Times did not raise a voice of protest when Stepan Bandera, Nazi collaborator and infamous murderer of Jews and Poles during the second World War, was named a national hero of Ukraine. And The Irish Times did not publish any front-page photos of thousands of men, women and children of Donetsk and Lugansk, killed by the Ukrainian army over the years in an attempt to quell the resistance to the bloody unconstitutional coup in Kiev in 2014. Now the West reaps the harvest of their cynicism, hypocrisy and lies, adding to them new ones – about “atrocities” by Russian military (who do not target civilians and at the price of their own lives try to shield them from fire and barbarism of neo-Nazi battalions). There should be no doubt that Russia will defend the people of Donbass and support Ukrainians, who would like to ditch the rule of neo-Nazis. We also see now what The Irish Times has been masking – its strong desire to do whatever they can to obstruct normal, positive relations between Ireland and Russia in all areas, be it political dialogue, trade or simply contacts between people. I strongly believe that this desire will not succeed in the long run.
Since The Irish Times is clearly bent on keeping up attacks against the Russian Embassy, I have to say this. We at the Russian Embassy in Dublin will continue to do our duty in keeping open channels of communication between the Russian and Irish governments, serving the people of our countries as long as it is possible and necessary, no matter what The Irish Times thinks or says. We receive numerous messages of support from the Irish citizens and we are grateful for them. – Yours, etc,
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YURIY FILATOV,
Ambassador of Russia
to Ireland,
Rathgar,
Dublin 14.