Letter Dated 24 February 2022 From The Permanent Representative Of The Russian Federation To The United Nations Addressed To The Secretary-General≪

• Reference: S/2022/154

Letter dated 24 February 2022 from the Permanent Representative

of the Russian Federation to the United Nations addressed to the

Secretary-General

I have the honour to forward herewith the text of the address of the President of

the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, to the citizens of Russia, informing them of

the measures taken in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations

in exercise of the right of self-defence (see annex).

I would ask you to circulate the present letter and its annex as a document of the

Security Council.

(Signed) Vassily Nebenzia

S/2022/154

2/8 22-02703

Annex to the letter dated 24 February 2022 from the Permanent

Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

addressed to the Secretary-General

[Original: Russian]

Address by the President of the Russian Federation

24 February 2022, 0600 hours, Moscow. The Kremlin

Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia! Dear friends!

Today, I again consider it necessary to return to the tragic events taking place in

Donbass and to the key aspects of ensuring the security of Russia itself.

I will begin with what I said in my address of 21 February this year. I spoke

about what is causing us particular concern and anxiety – those fundamental threats

against our country that, year after year, step by step, have been blatantly and

unceremoniously created by irresponsible politicians in the West. I am referring to

the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bloc to the east and

the advance of its military infrastructure ever closer to Russia’s borders.

It is well known that, for 30 years, we have been persistently and patiently

attempting to reach an agreement with the leading NATO countries on the principles

of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we have

constantly encountered either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and

blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance has continued to steadily expand despite

all our protests and concerns. The war machine is moving and, I repeat, is drawing

right up to our very borders.

Why is this happening? Where does this insolent way of talking down from a

position of one’s own exceptionalism, infallibility and impunity come from? Where

does the contemptuous and dismissive attitude towards our interests and absolutely

legitimate demands come from?

The answer is clear. It all makes sense and is obvious. The Soviet Union grew

weaker in the late 1980s and then collapsed altogether. The whole course of events

that took place then is a good lesson for us today; it has convincingly shown that a

paralysis of power and will is the first step towards complete degradation and

oblivion. All it took was for us to lose confidence in ourselves temporarily, and the

balance of power in the world was thrown off.

As a result, existing treaties and agreements became de facto void. Entreaties

and pleas do not help. Anything that does not suit the hegemon, the powers that be, is

declared archaic, obsolete and unnecessary. Conversely, everything that seems

profitable to them is presented as the ultimate truth and is pushed through at all costs,

boorishly and by any means. Those who disagree are brought to heel.

What I am saying now concerns not only Russia, and we are not the only country

that is worried about this. This has to do with the entire system of international

relations, and sometimes even the allies of the United States. After the collapse of the

Soviet Union, a de facto redivision of the world began, and the rules of international

law that had been developed by then – the key, fundamental ones adopted in the

aftermath of the Second World War and largely consolidating its outcomes – began to

get in the way of the self-proclaimed winner of the Cold War.

Of course, changes in the global situation and in the balance of power itself

should have been taken into account in practical life, in international relations and in

the rules governing those relations. This should have been done professionally, 

smoothly and patiently, taking into account and respecting the interests of all

countries and understanding one’s own responsibility. But no, there was a state of

euphoria from having absolute superiority, a kind of modern-day absolutism, along

with a low level of general culture and arrogance among those who prepared, adopted

and pushed through decisions that were beneficial only for themselves. The situation

began to develop according to a different scenario.

There is no need to look far to find examples. First, without any authorization

from the United Nations Security Council, it started with a bloody military operation

against Belgrade using aircraft and missiles right in the very heart of Europe. The

bombing of peaceful cities and vital infrastructure continued uninterrupted for several

weeks. I have to recall these facts because some Western colleagues do not like to

remember those events and, when we speak about them, they prefer to point not to

the rules of international law but instead to the circumstances, which they interpret as

they see fit.

Then came the turn of Iraq, Libya and Syria. The illegitimate use of military

force against Libya and the distortion of all United Nations Security Council decisions

on the Libyan question led to the complete destruction of that State, to the emergence

of a major hotbed of international terrorism and to the country being plunged into a

humanitarian disaster and the abyss of a long-standing civil war that continues to this

day. The tragedy that befell hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, not only

in Libya, but in the entire region, gave rise to a mass exodus of migrants from North

Africa and the Middle East to Europe.

A similar fate was also in store for Syria. The combat operations conducted by

the Western coalition on the territory of that country without the consent of the Syrian

Government or authorization from the United Nations Security Council are nothing

more than aggression and intervention.

 

However, the invasion of Iraq, also without any legal basis, of course, stands

out as a particular case. As a pretext, they chose the supposedly reliable information

that the United States had about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

To prove this publicly, in front of the whole world, the United States Secretary of

State shook a test tube of white powder, assuring everyone that it was the chemical

weapon being developed in Iraq. And then it turned out that it was all a fabrication, a

bluff: there were no chemical weapons in Iraq. Unbelievable and astonishing, but

there is no escaping that fact. There were lies at the highest State level and from the

high rostrum of the United Nations. And the result was a tremendous loss of life,

destruction and a colossal upsurge in terrorism.

In general, it would appear that in many regions of the world, almost wherever

the West comes to establish its order, it leaves bloody, open wounds and the sores of

international terrorism and extremism. I have mentioned the most egregious, but by

no means the only, examples of disregard for international law.

Added to this list are the promises made to our country not to expand NATO one

inch eastward. I repeat – they deceived us, or, to put it in the vernacular, they simply

played us. Yes, one often hears that politics is a dirty business. Perhaps, but not that

much, not to that extent. After all, such con-artist behaviour is contrary not only to

the principles of international relations, but above all to the generally accepted norms

of morality and ethics. Where is the justice and truth here? It is nothing but complete

lies and hypocrisy.

 

Incidentally, United States politicians, political scientists and journalists

themselves write and say that a veritable “empire of lies” has been created within the

United States in recent years. It is hard to disagree with that, as that is the case. But

one should not be modest about this: the United States is still a great country, a 

system-forming Power. All of its satellites not only humbly and obediently obey and

parrot it at every opportunity, they also copy its behaviour and enthusiastically accept

to play by its rules. Therefore, we can say with good reason and confidence that the

entire so-called Western bloc, formed by the United States in its own image and

likeness is, in its entirely, the very same “empire of lies”.

As for our country, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with all the

unprecedented openness of the new modern Russia and its willingness to work

honestly with the United States and other Western partners, and in a context of

virtually unilateral disarmament, they immediately tried to pin us down, to finish us

off and to destroy us for good. This is exactly what happened in the 1990s and the

early 2000s, when the so-called collective West most actively supported separatism

and mercenary gangs in southern Russia. What sacrifices and losses it cost us, and

what trials we had to go through before we finally broke the back of international

terrorism in the Caucasus! We remember this and will never forget.

In fact, even until recently, there have been ongoing attempts to use us in their

own interests, to destroy our traditional values and to impose their pseudo-values on

us, which would corrode us and our people from within; these attitudes are already

aggressively being imposed in their countries and are directly leading to degradation

and degeneration as they are contrary to human nature itself. That is not going to

happen. No one has ever succeeded in doing this. It will not succeed now either.

In spite of everything, in December 2021 we nonetheless tried once again to

reach an agreement with the United States and its allies on the principles of ensuring

security in Europe and on the non-expansion of NATO. All in vain. The position of

the United States has not changed. The United States does not consider it necessary

to negotiate with Russia on a matter that is critical for us; it is pursuing its own goals

while disregarding our interests.

And of course, this situation begs the question: what next, what are we to

expect? We know full well from history how, in 1940 and at the beginning of 1941,

the Soviet Union tried in every way to prevent or at least to delay the outbreak of war.

To that end, among other things, the Soviet Union tried literally, until the last minute,

not to provoke a potential aggressor and did not carry out, or postponed, the most

obvious preparatory actions needed to repel the inevitable attack. And the steps that

were eventually taken were disastrously overdue.

As a result, the country was not prepared to fully counter the invasion by Nazi

Germany, which attacked our homeland on 22 June 1941 without a declaration of war.

The enemy was stopped and then crushed, but at a colossal cost. The attempt to

appease the aggressor ahead of the Great Patriotic War was a mistake that cost our

people dearly. In the first months of fighting we lost vast, strategically important

territories and millions of people. We will not make such a mistake a second time. We

have no right to do so.

Those laying claim to world domination have publicly, with impunity and, I

emphasize, without any reason, declared us, Russia, as their enemy. They do indeed

have considerable financial, scientific, technological and military capabilities today.

We are aware of this and have a clear-eyed view of the economic threats that are

constantly being made against us, and of our ability to resist this blatant and everpresent blackmail. I repeat, we have no illusions in this regard and are extremely

realistic in our assessments.

On the military front, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of

much of its capabilities, Russia today is one of the most powerful nuclear powers in

the world and, moreover, has certain advantages in some of the newest types of weaponry. In that context, no one should have any doubt that a direct attack on our country will lead to defeat and terrible consequences for any potential aggressor.

At the same time, technology, including defence technology, is changing rapidly.

Leadership in this area has changed and will change hands, but the militarization of

the territories adjacent to our borders, if we allow this, will remain for decades to

come, perhaps forever, and will pose an ever-growing, totally unacceptable threat to

Russia.

Even now, as NATO expands eastward, the situation for our country is becoming

worse and more dangerous every year. Moreover, in recent days the NATO leadership

has been explicitly talking about the need to accelerate and force the advance of the

Alliance’s infrastructure to the borders of Russia. In other words, they are hardening

their stance. We can no longer continue to merely observe what is occurring. That

would be completely irresponsible of us.

The further expansion of the North Atlantic alliance’s infrastructure and the

militarization of Ukrainian territories are unacceptable to us. Of course, the issue is

not with NATO itself – it is only a tool of United States foreign policy. The problem

is that on the territories adjacent to ours – I note, on our own historical territories –

an “anti-Russia” hostile to us is being created, placed under full external control,

intensively settled by the armed forces of NATO countries and pumped full of the

most modern weapons.

For the United States and its allies, this is the so-called policy of containment

of Russia, with obvious geopolitical dividends. But for our country this is ultimately

a matter of life and death, the question of our historical future as a people.

And this is not an exaggeration – it is a fact. This is a real threat not just to our

interests, but to the very existence of our State and its sovereignty. This is the red line

that has been talked about many times: they have crossed it.

This brings me to the situation in Donbass. We can see that the forces that staged

the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized power and are maintaining it with the help

of what are essentially staged election procedures. They have definitively abandoned

the path of peaceful conflict resolution. For eight years, for eight endless years, we

have been doing everything possible to resolve this situation by peaceful political

means. But everything was in vain.

As I said in my previous address, one cannot look without compassion at what

is happening there, but all of this became simply impossible to tolerate. We had to

stop this nightmare – a genocide against the millions of people living there who are

pinning their hopes only on Russia, on us alone. It is their aspiration, the feelings and

pain of these people that were the main motivating force behind our decision to

recognize the independence of the Donbass People’s Republics.

I believe it is also important to emphasize the following. Focused on their own

goals, the leading NATO countries are supporting the nationalist fringe and neo-Nazis

in Ukraine who will never forgive the people of Crimea and Sevastopol for freely

making a choice to reunite with Russia.

They will undoubtedly bring war to Crimea just as they have done in Donbass,

to kill defenceless people, just as members of the punitive units of Ukrainian

nationalists and Hitler’s accomplices did during the Great Patriotic War. They have

also openly laid claim to a number of other Russian territories.

The entire course of events and an analysis of incoming reports demonstrate that

confrontation between Russia and these forces is inevitable. It is only a matter of

time. They are getting ready and waiting for the right moment. Now they are also

aspiring to possess nuclear weapons. We will not allow this to happen.

As I said earlier, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia accepted the new

geopolitical realities. We respect and will continue to respect all the newly formed

countries of the former Soviet Union. We respect and will continue to respect their

sovereignty, and an example of this is the assistance we have provided to Kazakhstan,

which has faced tragic events and challenges to its statehood and integrity. But Russia

cannot feel safe, develop and exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory

of present-day Ukraine.

Let me remind you that in 2000–2005 we used our military to push back against

terrorists in the Caucasus, defended the integrity of our State and preserved Russia.

In 2014, we supported the people of Crimea and Sevastopol. In 2015, we used

the Armed Forces to create a reliable barrier to terrorist infiltration from Syria into

Russia. We had no other way to defend ourselves.

The same is also happening now. We simply have been left with no other way

to defend Russia and our people than the one we are forced to use today. The

circumstances require us to act decisively and immediately. The People’s Republics

of Donbass appealed to Russia for help.

In this regard, in accordance with Article 51 (chapter VII) of the Charter of the

United Nations, I have decided to conduct a special military operation with the

approval of the Federation Council of Russia and pursuant to the treaties on friendship

and mutual assistance with the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s

Republic, as ratified by the Federal Assembly on 22 February this year.

Its purpose is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide

by the Kiev regime for eight years. And to this end, we will seek the demilitarization

and de-Nazification of Ukraine, as well as the prosecution of those who have

committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the

Russian Federation.

However, our plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. We

are not going to impose anything on anyone by force. At the same time, we hear that

recently there have been increasing statements in the West that the documents signed

by the Soviet totalitarian regime, in which the outcomes of the Second World War are

enshrined, should no longer be implemented. Well, how do we respond to that?

The outcomes of the Second World War are sacred, as are the sacrifices our

people made on the altar of victory over Nazism. But this does not contradict the high

values of human rights and freedoms today based on the realities of the post-war

decades. Nor does it override the right of nations to self-determination as enshrined

in Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations.

Let me remind you that neither at the founding of the Soviet Union, nor after

the Second World War, did anyone ever ask the people living in any of the territories

that make up present-day Ukraine how they themselves wanted to build their lives.

Our policy is based on freedom, the freedom of choice for all to determine their own

future and that of their children. And we consider it important that all peoples living

on the territory of today’s Ukraine, all those who want to exercise this right – the right

to choose – should have the right to do so.

In this context, I would also like to address the citizens of Ukraine. In 2014,

Russia was obligated to protect the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol from those

you yourselves call “nats” or nationalists. The people of Crimea and Sevastopol made

their choice to be with their historic homeland, with Russia, and we supported that.

I repeat, we simply could not act otherwise.

Today’s events are not about the desire to infringe on the interests of Ukraine

and the Ukrainian people. They have to do with protecting Russia itself from those

who have taken Ukraine hostage and are trying to use it against our country and its

people.

Again, our actions are self-defence against the threats posed to us and against

an even greater calamity than what is happening today. No matter how difficult it may

be, I ask you to understand this and call for cooperation in order to turn this tragic

page as soon as possible and move forward together, allowing no one to interfere in

our affairs, in our relations, but rather building them independently, which would

create the necessary conditions to overcome all problems and, despite the existence

of State borders, strengthen us from within as a united whole. I believe in this, in our

common future.

I must also address members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Dear comrades! Your fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not fight

the Nazis in defence of our common homeland so that today’s neo-Nazis could seize

power in Ukraine. You swore an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people, not to the

anti-people junta that is robbing Ukraine and mocking its very people.

Do not follow their criminal orders. I urge you to lay down your weapons

immediately and go home. Let me be clear: all military personnel of the Ukrainian

army who comply with this requirement will be able to leave the combat zone freely

and return to their families.

Let me emphasize once again: all responsibility for any bloodshed will be

entirely on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine.

Now a few important, very important, words for those who may be tempted to

intervene in the ongoing events from the outside. Whoever tries to stand in our way,

and especially to threaten our country and our people, should know that Russia’s

response will be immediate and the consequences will be such as you have never

faced before in your history. We are ready for any turn of events. All the necessary

decisions have been made in this regard. I hope that I have made myself clear.

Dear citizens of Russia!

The well-being, the very existence of entire nations and peoples, their success

and vitality always originate in the powerful underpinning of their culture and values

and in the experience and the traditions of their ancestors. Of course, this depends

directly on the ability to adapt quickly to a constantly changing life and on the

cohesion of society and its readiness to consolidate and gather together all the

available forces to move forward.

Strength is always needed, always, but strength can have different qualities. At

the heart of the “empire of lies” policy I spoke about at the beginning of my speech

is, first and foremost, brute, straightforward force. In such cases, we say “all brawn

and no brains”.

We all know that the real power is in justice and truth, which is on our side. And

if this is so, then it is difficult not to agree that strength and a readiness to fight are

the basis of independence and sovereignty, the necessary foundation on which alone

one can reliably build one’s future, one’s home, one’s family and one’s homeland.

Dear compatriots!

I am certain that the soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of Russia, devoted

to their country, will fulfil their duty professionally and courageously. I have no doubt

that at all levels governmental institutions, the experts responsible for the stability of

our economy, financial system and society, the leaders of our companies and the entire 

Russian business community will act in a coordinated and effective manner. I count

on all parliamentary parties and on civil society to take a consolidated and patriotic

position.

In the end, as has always been the case in history, the fate of Russia is in the

capable hands of our multi-ethnic people. This means that the decisions taken will be

implemented, the goals set will be achieved and the security of our homeland will be

reliably guaranteed.

I believe in your support and in the invincible strength that our love for the

Fatherland gives us.

Publication status – Published: News. Speeches and transcripts.

Date of publication: 24 February 2022, 0600 hours.

Link: kremlin.ru/d/67843

• Date of UN Publication: Fri, 04 Mar 2022 23:55:01 GMT
• Document URL: https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/S/2022/154