Sir, – We would like to follow up briefly the letter (October 23rd) that purports to question comments on Syria by Russian ambassador to Ireland Yuriy Filatov, using results of "video investigation", published on October 14th, 2019, in the New York Times.
The whole story about Russians bombing hospitals in Syria has been nothing more than a disinformation exercise by the British intelligence and Syrian terrorists from “Jabhat An-Nusra”.
Right after the publication in the New York Times, the ministry of defence of the Russian Federation issued detailed statement. The following are its main points. The New York Times demonstrates in its video expensive equipment and specialised software, which in fact is an intelligence/combat application of a so-called “air strike warning system”, developed by the US company Hala Systems. It is quite clear that the ordinary people of Syria, who have been struggling for physical survival under the oppression of terrorists, do not have such gadgets, modern radio-scanners, secure laptops, let alone access to the internet. It was the British military intelligence who since August 2016 directly engaged in the deployment of such systems, originally called “Sentry”, connecting all observation posts in the Idlib province into a single network. Moreover, the so-called “observation posts” were deployed and operated solely by the discredited pseudo-rescuers from the “White Helmets”, who have been totally controlled and financed by the British. It is not for reasons of natural modesty or fear for security that “activists”, mentioned in the article, kept absolute anonymity. One can explain it only by the fact that they belong to the “White Helmets”, acting under auspices of the “Jabhat An-Nusra”.
One can only wonder what the New York Times means by “cockpit recordings” of Russian pilots, since they do not get any target guidance by voice and openly on air.
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The supposedly bombed “hospital for civilians” was located in a cave at a considerable distance from the village without any conditions inside even remotely associated with medical treatment. – Yours, etc,
VICTORIA LOGINOVA,
Press-attaché
of the Embassy
of the Russian
Federation in Ireland,
Orwell Road,
Rathgar,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – The letter "Russia stands for a peaceful world order" (October 22nd) compelled me to react since the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Yuriy Filatov, has substituted mere propaganda for facts, which your astute readers will immediately notice conforms with the Kremlin's ongoing campaign to mask their mounting crimes through revisionary narratives wherever they can appear or be printed. I pointedly use the term "propaganda" out of diplomatic etiquette in relation to the ambassador's many denials, including his assertion that "Russia did not bomb hospitals and other civilian sites in Syria", "did not invade Georgia, neither it occupied Crimea, nor started the war in the eastern Ukraine". However, the facts say otherwise. In light of the investigative work of Limerick's Malachy Brown and his colleagues f the New York Times in exposing the Russian bombing of civilians and hospitals, including those on a "no-strike list" sent by the UN to the Kremlin, which provided undeniable evidence of these crimes, Mr Filatov's denials are contemptible.
The ambassador’s further claim that Russia did not occupy Crimea rings equally hollow. His Excellency may have forgotten that on the annually televised Direct Line with V Putin television show on April 17th, 2014, the Russian president himself clearly stated exactly the opposite: “Behind self-defence forces of Crimea, our military men undoubtedly stood . . . Otherwise it was impossible to hold the referendum”. This was no mere slip of the tongue. In the Russian propaganda film Crimea: Way to Homeland, Mr Putin noted that the plan to annex the Crimean peninsula had grown ripe long before the so-called referendum in Crimea, and on February 23rd, 2014, he told his government officials “... the situation in Ukraine had developed in a way that we had to start working on bringing Crimea back to Russia”.
The world is well aware of saboteur groups sent from Russia early 2014 to provoke unrest in Donbas, set up terrorist cells, create violent unrest and, as The Irish Times itself reported, “. . . arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment and torture, and at least one extra-judicial execution were documented” (“Russia committing grave human rights violations in Crimea, says UN”, World News, October 23rd, 2017).
It is now up to Russia to instruct their proxy regimes to stop breaching ceasefire, thus creating the conditions for the long-awaited withdrawal of forces along the frontline as envisaged by the Minsk agreements and for the conduct of the Normandy Four (N4) summit without delay. It is evident, however, that neither a ceasefire nor the N4 summit do not fall into the Kremlin’s plans.
Only when Russia is willing to accept the numerous resolutions of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Council of Europe parliamentary assemblies, among others, which condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, call on Russia to withdraw its militants and military equipment from Donbas, stop persecuting Ukrainians and Tatars in Crimea, stop brigandism in the Black and Azov Seas, and join, finally, the efforts of international community aimed at strengthening peace and stability worldwide, then their claims of wanting a “peaceful world order” may gain some credence. – Yours, etc,
OLENA SHALOPUT,
Chargé d’Affaires,
Embassy of Ukraine
to Ireland,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.