October 6, 2022

1. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the Senate on referenda

(October 4)

[Speaker] Ms Matviyenko, Senators,

As per the instructions of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, I submit for your consideration the federal laws on the ratification of treaties between the Russian Federation and the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye Region and Kherson Region on their accession to the Russian Federation and on the establishment of new constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

You know the contents of these draft laws very well. During their drafting, the President of Russia held the necessary consultations, including with the Federation Council. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation issued its opinion the day before yesterday. The State Duma ratified the laws yesterday.

These documents clearly set out the procedure for the integration of four independent states into Russia and guarantee the rights of their people as citizens of the Russian Federation in all areas, including language, culture, traditions, social protection and economic development.

The decisions on the integration of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions into the Russian Federation are based on the free expression of will by their people made during the referendums on September 23-27, 2022. The people of these territories were able to express their will independently and freely, which has been confirmed by numerous observers, including international ones. The citizens of these republics and regions made a conscious choice based on the right to self-determination.

This is fully in keeping with the principle of equality and self-determination  enshrined in the UN Charter, the 1970 Declaration On Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and many other documents. The abovementioned Declaration, which was unanimously adopted at the UN General Assembly, reads: “Every State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action that deprives peoples … of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence.” In accordance with the Declaration, peoples can resist such forcible action and are entitled to seek and receive the support of the international community.

A great deal is being said today publicly that the principle of territorial integrity, also enshrined in the UN Charter, has an absolute priority over the right to self-determination. In this connection, I would like to draw the attention of those who may be interested that the Declaration of the UN General Assembly (1970) contains a clear answer to the proponents of this view. The Declaration seals the duty of states to respect the territorial integrity of states “conducting themselves in compliance with the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples… and thus possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory.”

There is no need to prove that the Kiev regime does not meet the said criteria and has for years grossly and massively violated the abovementioned UN requirements. It has long become something foreign and hostile to all residents of Ukraine, who cannot imagine living their lives without feeling part of the Russian civilisation and whom President Zelensky urged to “beat it to Russia” a year ago. It is utterly clear that this regime does not and cannot represent millions of citizens against whom it has unleashed a war.

The radical nationalists who seized power in Ukraine following a government coup in February 2014 have conducted a policy of suppression with regard to Ukraine’s Russians and Russian speakers throughout the subsequent period. They have branded as terrorists the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, who refused to recognize the criminal Maidan authorities. The Armed Forces of Ukraine and neo-Nazi battalions were taking cruel vengeance on the people of Donbass by shelling their cities and villages practically every day, killing and crippling people, destroying civilian infrastructure, and trying to stifle them with an inhuman blockade.

Kiev openly derailed the Minsk Agreements as approved by the UN Security Council, and was not held accountable for this. In the meantime, the West was cynically looking the other way as if not noticing the Ukrainian radicals’ actions meant to solve the “problem of Donbass” by force – Plan B, as they called it. Moreover, the West was actually encouraging them to implement this scenario. In his speech in the Kremlin on September 30, President of Russia Vladimir Putin described in detail the true intentions harboured by the United States and its satellites with regard to using the Zelensky regime to wage war against Russia.

Ukraine itself has in fact turned into an aggressive totalitarian state that approves discriminatory laws, carries out forced Ukrainisation, encourages Russophobia, and violates language, educational, cultural and other human rights on a large scale. Supported by the authorities, the Ukrainian legislature adopts laws disseminating the ideology of Nazism and ethnic and religious intolerance. Ukrainian officials are no longer ashamed of their neo-Nazi essence and openly urge all and sundry to kill Russians the world over.

Russia could not but come to the rescue of the long-suffering people of Donbass. Nor can it fail to defend the residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions from this inhuman regime.

The decisions taken at the referendums in the two republics and the two regions are a response to neo-Nazi Ukraine’s atrocities and the fulfilment of the people’s long-standing aspiration to reunite with their historical homeland.

On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, I ask the Federation Council to approve the abovementioned laws, Lavrov prpposed.

2. Press release on the filing of Russia’s written objections to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in the case initiated by Kiev in February 2022 under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (5 October 2022)

On October 3, the Russian Federation submitted to the International Court of Justice its written objections to the jurisdiction of the court to consider the merits of the claim filed by Kiev in February 2022 against our country under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

It is clearly and unambiguously explained in the document that Kiev's claims are actually limited to challenging the legality of the special military operation in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the status of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. The Convention has nothing to do with these matters.

The Russian side emphasised that the Ukrainian side has again abused the procedural right to appeal to the International Court of Justice. In particular, it chose the 1948 Convention as the basis for its claim because it is the only international treaty to which both Russia and Ukraine are parties that allows recourse to the Court and does not require the mandatory pre-trial stage of dispute settlement.

Russia's objections also cite the real genesis of the armed conflict in Ukraine, which was initiated by Kiev against Donbass in 2014.

3. Russian MFA response to UN Secretary-General statement on referenda

Question: On September 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres went on record with a very tough statement describing the referendums in Donbass and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as an “annexation.”  Has he offered any additional public explanations after that?

MFA official spokesperson:

First of all, a Secretary-General can have no independent “position,” especially on territorial issues. Under the UN Charter, this office implies the performance of functions of the top UN administrative official. This has been clearly indicated in the comments of the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations and by the Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

During his briefing on October 5, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric, a person who speaks on behalf of Mr Guterres, seemed to be trying to find an excuse.  But, in truth, we heard nothing new or reassuring.  The Secretariat has once again reaffirmed its biased and unprincipled approach to the Ukrainian issue. We are sure that this situation must be changed. It is not to the advantage of the UN Secretariat or its head.

To believe the UN official, Mr Guterres made his September 29 statements based on the General Assembly’s decisions. Obviously, he meant Resolution 68/262, which was put to the vote in March 2014 and the subsequent anti-Russia decisions approved by the 11th special session of the UN General Assembly, which were also supported by far from all member states of the United Nations.

Paradoxically, the Secretariat representatives, while belabouring the General Assembly’s non-consensus decisions, forget about the documents that were unanimously approved by the UN Security Council. One such document was Security Council Resolution 2202 approving the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. For seven years, Kiev openly violated its provisions. Specifically, both Petr Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky had no scruples about saying in public that it was null and void. We waited in vain for a denunciatory response from the UN Secretariat, something that prompts the conclusion that the UN Secretariat is highly selective about implementing the member states’ decisions.

The Secretariat representatives “forget” an important point, while speaking about the need to preserve Ukraine’ territorial integrity and basing themselves on some provisions of the UN Charter and the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. The latter document states clearly that the above principle is only applicable to states “possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour.” It is obvious that the Kiev authorities do not answer the description. Moreover, “Every State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples referred to above in the elaboration of the present principle of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence.”  I think there is no need to remind everyone of the seven-year-long shelling of Donbass.

On the whole, there are no “turning points” in the Secretariat’s rhetoric. The only thing they proved able to do was to polish slightly the Russophobic statements by the most rabid supporters of the Kiev regime.

4. Russian MFA: The USA should admit its direct involvement in the Ukrainian affairs

It is time for the US State Department to admit its involvement in the situation in Ukraine, from regime change to motives for blowing up gas pipelines, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a briefing on October 6. "It's time for Washington to speak loudly, frankly and clearly about its true involvement in the situation in Ukraine, from regime change to their motives for destroying gas pipelines," it was said

As the diplomat noted, the Russian Foreign Ministry "has never heard a statement from official Washington that they do not support or in any way criticize the Kiev regime for all the horror it has done here over the years." "Has that happened! Even once, even one statement about this?" she pointed out, "Sometimes they might have mumbled somewhere in the State Department that they were either not following the situation, or they were, and that was it. There were no condemnations, no direct accusations." There is no point in "picking out individual elements of what was done under the direct supervision or participation of American intelligence services and what was not."

"Washington has guided, protected and led the Kiev regime for many years. This is a question of shared responsibility for what the US has done to this country and to the region as a whole," MFA spokesperson concluded.

5. Elon Musk feuds with US Senator over Ukraine

Many in Eastern Ukraine would “prefer Russia,” Tesla CEO told Lindsey Graham

Russians make up the majority in some territories in Eastern Ukraine, and they would like to be a part of Russia, Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk said on October 6, responding to criticism by US Senator Lindsey Graham of his stance on the conflict.

Graham had castigated Musk for not understanding “the facts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine” after the billionaire presented a peace plan to end hostilities between Moscow and Kiev. Musk’s latest comments come after he proposed a plan to end the Ukraine conflict, suggesting that Moscow should redo referenda of the annexed regions under UN supervision while Kiev would commit to neutrality and drop its claim to Crimea, which overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in 2014.

Mask’s peace plan was met amongst Russian public both in positive and negative ways.

In a positive way Russian citizens noted his recognition of Crimea as the Russian territory, and his remarks that Crimea should enjoy the right to use was from Dnepr River that was blocked by Kiev illegally by a dam. On the other hand, Russian citizens reminded Mask that citizens in Donbass have already arranged two separate referenda – in 2014 and 2022 – were they by vast majority have voted to join Russia. Russian citizens were unhappy that Mask has allocated $ 80 mln for Ukraine, but zero dollars to Russia, and supplied Ukrainian Army with his hi-tech communication devices that have been found at the Azovstal steel mill.

According to Musk, in any given conflict region, it is the people who should decide which country they want to live in. “Most of Ukraine unequivocally wants to be part of Ukraine, but some eastern portions have Russian majorities and prefer Russia,” he said.

Musk posted a map with results of the 2012 parliamentary election in Ukraine that took place two years prior to a coup in Kiev. It showed that large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine supported the pro-Russia Party of Regions. “Obviously, not everyone who voted for the pro-Russia party wanted to join Russia, but it would also be inaccurate to say that none did,” he explained.

His stance sparked outcry among several Ukrainian officials, with Kiev’s outgoing unpolite and rude ambassador to Berlin Andrey Melnik going as far as to tell Musk to “f**k off.” President Vladimir Zelensky reacted in a more reserved manner by holding a poll, asking his followers on Twitter “which Elon Musk” they “like more”: the one “who supports Ukraine,” or the one “who supports Russia”. Initially, the majority of respondents preferred to support Russia.

6. Peace in Ukraine possible if Biden Administration halts military aid - ex-US Senator

Chances for peace between Russia and Ukraine are possible only when the USA stops sending billions of dollars in weapons to Kiev, former Virginia State Senator Richard Black said.

Last week, the United States pledged an additional $1.1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including the provision of 18 new HIMARS systems.

"I think that there may be some chance for peace when people begin to realize that we [the United States] need to stop sending money for weapons across the globe," Black noted. "I think the West’s determination was that the war should continue, regardless of how many Ukrainians died in the process. And certainly, you know, not caring how many Russians died in the process."

The overspending that has been taking place in the West, he added, has destabilized the currency markets and caused all sorts of economic dislocations. Black said the US needs to start taking care of things back home rather than sending military aid, especially given the economy is becoming shakier by the day.

7. AFU gangsterism against civilians goes on ….

Without any desire to recognize the results of September 2022 four referenda and the fact that four territories joined Russia, Kiev incited by the USA, NATO and EU continues to shell nowadays Russian territory by heavy weapons, each day attacking 10-15 residential areas per day, as well as Zaporozhye NPP that became Russian property after Zaporozhye Region joined Russia. E.g. on October 5 the plant was shelled 46 times with the aim to destroy it.  During last two days several civilians have been killed and a dozen have been injured in various settlements on newly acceded territories.

Kiev has announced plans to overflood ZNPP completely by the Dnepr River by exploding the dam built in the upper stream of the river the largest in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces confessed [on this video; link is: https://en.news-front.info/2022/10/05/once-in-a-village-shoot-everyone-this-was-the-order-given-to-ukrainian-soldiers-of-the-25th-afu-brigade-during-one-of-the-battles/ ] that they killed civilians, even women and children, and threw grenades into cellars where people were hiding in the basements.

“Once in the village – shoot everyone,” was the order given to Ukrainian soldiers from the 25th AFU Brigade during one of the battles. According to their own words, they killed civilians, even women and children, and threw grenades into cellars where people were hiding.

But they decided to talk about these atrocities only because their commanders then left them on the front line and ordered them to finish off the wounded so as not to organize evacuation.

“When we were in the village, people were asking for evacuation, asking for help, but they were brutally shot. Our guys were shooting three hundred people,” said an AFU soldier.

8. Situation on the battlefield

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

Up to 3 battalion tactical groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or AFU made an unsuccessful attempt to resume their offensive towards Pershotravnevoye, Kislovka and Berestovoye at Kupyansk direction. Decisive action of Russian forces has resulted in repelling all the attacks. Up to 120 servicemen of AFU 5 tanks, 12 armoured combat vehicles and 14 motor vehicles have been eliminated.

Kiev regime's military units have conducted no active operations at Krasny Liman direction.

2 Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups have been eliminated by Russian artillery fire near Petrovskoye (Kharkov Region, Russia). The attack has resulted in the elimination of 25 militants and 2 pickups with large-calibre machine guns mounted.

Offensive of the allied forces has resulted in the liberation of Zaytsevo (DPR, Russia) at Artyomovsk direction. The offensive has resulted in the elimination of over 120 personnel from 58th Mechanised Infantry and 128th Mountain Assault Brigades of the AFU, as well as 3 infantry combat vehicles.

Attacks launched by army aviation of Russian Aerospace Forces near Novy Komar (DPR) have resulted in the elimination of up to 60 servicemen from 56th Mechanised Infantry Brigade of the AFU, 2 tanks and 5 motor vehicles.

4 enemy battalion tactical groups made numerous attempts to break through the defence of Russian forces towards Dudchany, Sukhanovo, Sadok, Bruskinskoye at Andreyevka-Krivoy Rog direction.

The enemy has been driven from the defence line of Russian forces. Over 100 Ukrainian personnel, 6 tanks, 8 armoured combat vehicles and 9 motor vehicles have been eliminated.

Missile and air defence attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces at the provisional bases of 35th Marine Brigade of the AFU near Davydov Brod (Kherson region), 46yh Airmobile Brigade of the AFU near Murakhovka (Nikolayev Region), 60th Infantry Brigade near Trifonovka and Novaya Kamenka (Kherson Region, Russia) have resulted in the elimination of over 280 Ukrainian personnel and 9 units of military equipment.

High-precision missile attacks of Russian Aerospace Forces near Velikoye Artakovo (Nikolayev Region), Novogrigorovka and Belaya Krinitsa (KhersonRregion) have resulted in the destruction of 3 pontoon crossings of the AFU over Ingulets river.

4 missile, artillery armament and munitions depots have been destroyed near Seversk and Vodyanoye (DPR), as well as near Zaporozhye. Within the counter-battery warfare, 2 Ukrainian Grad MLRS batteries have been neutralised by missile attacks near Dvurechnaya (Kharkov Region) and Karpovka (DPR).

Fighter aviation of Russian Aerospace Forces have shot down 2 airplanes of Ukrainian Air Force: 1 MiG-29 near Novogrodovka and 1 Su-24 near Sviridonovka (DPR).

Air defence facilities have destroyed 9 Ukrainian UAVs near Chervonoarmeyskoye, Dmitriyenko, Charivnoye (Kherson Region), Pokrovskoye, Poltava, Troitskoye (Lugansk People's Republic, Russia), Orlinskoye and Mospino (DPR).

Moreover, 3 projectiles launched by Olkha MLRS have been shot down in air near Velikaya Novosyolka (DPR).

In total, 315 airplanes and 157 helicopters, 2,160 unmanned aerial vehicles, 379 air defence missile systems, 5,412 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 862 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 3,452 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 6,316 special military vehicles have been destroyed during the Special Military Operation.

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin