Statement by Chairman of the CC CPRF Gennady Zyuganov
The tactic of the punitive Nazi battalions which are suffering defeat in the clash with the DPR and LPR troops is very clear. It is the same “scorched land” tactic as that used by the Nazi occupiers as they were driven by the Red Army out of the territory of the USSR, including Ukraine. The Germans blew up the Dneproges Power Plant, destroyed hundreds of factories, mines and bridges and burned tens of thousands of Ukrainian homes.
The Nazis of the “territorial battalions” are engaged in the same business. Even as they are retreating from Donbass, they continue shelling with 122- and 152-mm guns the cities and villages of this long-suffering region. Civilians die every day. These are war crimes. The West does not even try to stop the shelling of Donbass residential neighborhoods, which makes the “moralists” and “humanitarians” in the European Union and the USA accomplices in war crimes.
Trying to create the impression that civilians are dying at the hands of the Russian army, they resort to grisly provocations by shelling the cities under their own control. A powerful explosion has rocked the center of Kharkov. All the “world” media outlets which are totally controlled by Washington, are trumpeting that Russia is to blame. And yet it was obviously an explosion of a vehicle stuffed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives, which points to those who ordered and executed the crime. These are the tactics used by numerous CIA-controlled terrorist organizations across the world.
The West and its “fifth column“ in Russia are defending out-and-out Fascists and terrorists who have seized power in Ukraine and turned its citizens into hostages of their grisly Russophobia and anti-Sovietism. Hostages in the direct sense of the word. For example, in Mariupol, surrounded by LPR-DPR forces, the Nazis from the Azov and Aidar regiments are preventing civilians from leaving the city. They are placing gunmen on top stories of residential blocks to prevent people from leaving. The Nazi units are using these people as human shields.
We appeal to the European Union and the USA to condemn the terrorism of Bandera nationalists against Donbass cities, the practice of taking hostages as human shields and of placing guns and mortars in residential quarters of cities under their control. If the West does not prevent this flagrant violation of elementary norms of warfare the responsibility for the crimes of its vassals will rest with their patrons.
The West should take a closer look at those it is so strenuously defending. These are the followers of Hitler’s hireling Bandera and his thugs. It was Bandera’s followers who committed the most heinous crimes on Soviet territory occupied by the German troops. It was Bandera’s thugs who massacred Jews at Babiy Yar, butchered Poles in Volyn and burned people alive in the villages of Byelorussia. The way they burned alive tens of people in Odessa in 2014 indicates that these monsters have inherited from their Hitler forerunners a readiness to commit crimes against humanity. No decent person can associate oneself with them.
We are amazed at the duplicity and hypocrisy of the “peace champions.” We ask one simple question: why have you been silent for eight years when Donbass residential neighborhoods were shelled almost every day. Civilians died every day. Why did you not show even a little sympathy for the relatives and close ones of those who were killed and maimed? You were silent all these years. So we have very grave doubts about the sincerity of these new “champions of peace.”
Would you have protested if the Ukrainian forces and the Nazi battalions had invaded Donbass, as was being planned, and staged a massacre of the defenders of DPR and LPR? Or would you have kept silent? Unfortunately, I have no doubt that not even rivers of blood in Donbass would have induced you to take to the street and demand an end to the genocide of the Russian people and the Russian-speaking population.
We are also for peace and always come out for a peaceful solution of any conflict. We are against bloodshed. And we very much hope that serious losses can be avoided not only among Russian army men, but also among the soldiers and officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces among whom there are many Russians and deceived Ukrainians. We sincerely hope for an early end to the hostilities and a political settlement through negotiations. We are doing all we can toward that end. We appeal to the West, especially the USA, not to obstruct the search for a peaceful settlement.
We are well aware that the USA is more interested than anyone in the preparation and fomenting of a conflict between Russia and fraternal Ukraine. However, many honest political and public personalities, journalists and scientists in the USA, Europe and many other countries know full well the real essence of what is taking place. We sincerely appreciate their deep understanding of the West’s responsibility for unleashing this conflict.
America and the European Union are not struggling for Ukraine. They seek to use the local Nazis in a bid for the right to plunder Ukraine and turn it into a bridgehead for aggression against Russia. We call on the international community to understand the danger of this course for the cause of peace and genuine democracy in the world and to actively resist attempts to disrupt the process of political settlement in Ukraine.
Gennady Zyuganov,
Chairman of the CC CPRF