⭐️ Today, on February 23, Russia celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day!

Congratulations to everyone who has defended our Motherland and continues to shield & fight for it at this very moment ! 🛡

🎙 Greetings of President Vladimir Putin on Defender of the Fatherland Day (February 23, 2025)

💬 Comrades and friends, veterans, active military and civilian personnel of the Armed Forces, and everyone who has gone through severe trials on the battlefield, please accept my most heartfelt greetings on Defender of the Fatherland Day.

On this day, deep respect and the warmest words go to our soldiers and officers participating in the special military operation, who are risking their lives today, valiantly and courageously defending their native land, the national interests and the future of Russia. It is you who are the main heroes of Defender of the Fatherland Day, which our entire country is celebrating today.

This holiday embodies all the love and respect that our nation has for our army and navy, for people who have made military service their profession and their high calling, for everyone who has made their choice today to stand by the Motherland and defend its interests. Military service has always been highly regarded in Russia; it has always been a matter of honour. Our own history fosters our patriotic feelings that are passed on from generation to generation.

We are guided by the centuries-old victorious traditions of the Russian army; we look up to the valour, faith and courage of our ancestors who fought on the ice of Lake Peipus and on Kulikovo Field, who defended Moscow in the 16th century and safeguarded our statehood during the Time of Troubles; who triumphed at Poltava, covered themselves in glory in the Battle of Borodino, defended Sevastopol during the Crimean War, showed unparallelled courage in the Battle of Galicia and other WWI battles, and who performed a truly heroic deed during WWII by defeating Nazism and storming Berlin, and celebrated the Victory there in May 1945.

This year, which marks the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, has been declared the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland in Russia. We pay tribute to the unwavering and undaunted generation of victors, to the memory of their heroism and sacrifice, and the epoch-making Victory that they gave to the world. We celebrate the heroes who honourably continue the military labours of their ancestors on the battlefield today.

We realise how hard it is for you right now, and we proudly support you. I want to thank all participants in the special military operation for their strong spirit and determination to bring us victory. I am grateful to all defenders of Russia for their honest and impeccable service to the Motherland and to our nation.

Comrades,

Today, as the world is changing impetuously, our strategic course for strengthening and developing the Armed Forces remains unchanged. We will continue to build up the combat potential of the army and navy, and their combat effectiveness as the essential part of Russia’s security that guarantees its sovereign present and future, and its consistent development.

Our absolute priority today is supplying the troops fighting in the special military operation with the provisions and equipment they need. Based on the analysis of the tactical use of the weapons and equipment, we will continue to provide the Armed Forces with new state-of-the-art models. Our focus will also be on improving the social security of our military personnel.

I am confident that Russian fighters will continue to protect their home country and their people diligently.

My best wishes go to your families and loved ones who are waiting for you to return home.

Happy Defender of the Fatherland Day! I wish you success in service for the benefit of our great nation.

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at a UNGA Emergency Special Session on Ukraine (New York, February 24, 2025)

💬 Vassily Nebenzia: Today, we are witnessing historic events that not every generation gets a chance to share. It is a multipolar world that is taking shape before our very eyes now. This world should have come into being 30 years ago, upon the end of the Cold War, which drew a line under the ideological confrontation between the USSR and the West.

At that time, the world was replete with hopes for a better future, for mutually beneficial cooperation between key players in the interests of all mankind, for cessation of wars, and for the establishment of a new, indivisible security architecture whereby former adversaries would become allies who address international problems together.

Unfortunately, this logic didn’t prevail then, and the ideology of cooperation was gradually supplanted by the philosophy of a “zero-sum game”. This was not our choice, and we warned many times about the dangers that such logic is fraught with.

❗️ As a result, the world ended up on the brink of a third world war because of the anti-Russian project “Ukraine” that had been implemented by Western countries in their geopolitical interests on our borders. <...>

Ukraine itself has set off a clockwork mechanism of self-destruction by hatred, intolerance and hostility. This could have been stopped by the Minsk Agreements, which were endorsed by the UN Security Council exactly 10 years ago, but instead of implementing them, the Kiev regime (under the patronage of its Western sponsors), as we all know today, opted for sabotaging them, while actively arming itself and preparing for war with Russia.

Another attempt to stop this mechanism was undertaken by the citizens of Ukraine, when three quarters of them voted for the new Ukrainian president Zelensky in May 2019, as he promised to establish peace in the east of the country and protect the Russian language and the rights of Russian-speaking citizens, he also promised to stop glorifying Nazi henchmen and restore good-neighborly relations with Russia.

⚠️ However, when he became president, he treacherously turned the country back to its previous suicidal and inhumane course. <...>

We tried to sort it out peacefully with Kiev, Washington and Brussels, but no one listened to us, no one took us seriously. It was only three years ago when we launched our special military operation, clearly stating its goals. We were compelled to do that because it became absolutely clear that Ukraine would soon cross both “red lines”.

At the same time, from the very get-go we have reiterated our willingness to achieve the goals of the special military operation through peaceful means, and we have always preferred such a solution. <...>

Over the past three years, Ukraine received hundreds of billions of dollars in Western aid, the country received ample Western weapons and mercenaries, as well as intelligence data. In other words, Ukraine has become something like a private military company fighting for Western geopolitical interests, and the conflict has become a textbook example of a proxy war waged between Russia and NATO countries.

Despite this, the Ukrainian army suffered catastrophic losses and the capitulation of the Kiev regime is only a matter of time. <...>

The hopelessness of the Zelensky regime is something that has become evident in recent weeks even to the main sponsor of the Kiev junta – the United States.

The new Republican administration, led by President Donald Trump, has finally seen the true face of the “expired” Ukrainian president and realized that he is absolutely not interested in having peace in his country, because he is at pains to cling onto power and he fears democratic elections, which he has no chance to win.

👉 He is not interested in anything else, and he is ready to sacrifice the entire population of Ukraine and all its natural resources only to remain in power.

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🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vassily Nebenzia following the UNSC vote on a US-Drafted Resolution on Ukraine (New York, February 24, 2025)

💬 Vassily Nebenzia: We acknowledge the constructive changes in the United States position on the Ukrainian conflict. And the draft resolution we have considered today appears to be an attempt to put these changes into practice. We also understand the rationale why the sponsors went for such a short and generalized text.

In order to support this generally sensible approach, Russia decided not to propose any substantive additions to the text. We limited ourselves to only two proposals, very modest but important ones in terms of ensuring that UN Security Council assesses the Ukrainian crisis correctly.

👉 We regret that our amendments were not adopted.

The European delegations both in the General Assembly and in the Security Council took the position of openly sabotaging the emerging positive developments towards a settlement of the crisis.

They have tried to add to the text unbalanced, politicized passages that in no way could bring peace closer, but rather are geared at disrupting such prospects.

Even the proposal to adhere to the UN Charter was framed quite slyly, since out of all the principles, they emphasized only one – the respect for the territorial integrity of States, whereas the respect for human rights and the right of nations to self-determination was something that the EU and the UK were trying not to mention with regard to Ukraine, even though it is the non-compliance by the Kiev regime with precisely those principles that lies at the heart of the Ukrainian conflict. We could not allow such a substitution of concepts.

It is obvious that militarized Europe is now the only player on the international arena that wants the war to go on and fiercely resist any viable initiatives to resolve the conflict.

The text we passed today is not an ideal one, but in essence it is the first attempt to have a constructive and future-oriented product in the Council, and it is about peace not about blowing the conflict up.

And the conflict has a very complex genesis and does not boil down to a confrontation between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, unlike what Ukraine itself and its European puppeteers are trying to convince us of.

We view the adopted text as a starting point for further efforts towards a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. But these efforts will not bear fruit unless constructive cooperation among the key global players on the issues of European and international security is restored. The outlines of this cooperation can already be traced in the American text, and this inspires a certain optimism.

But let us not get too excited: the “party of war” (which is the Kiev regime and its European sponsors) has by no means given up, and today's attempt to spoil and distort the American text clearly demonstrate that.

☝️ We urge everyone who genuinely wants to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine to not allow the princeling of Kiev and his puppeteers to derail the efforts undertaken by Russia and the United States.

🎙 Statement by Sergey Vershinin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the High Level Segment of the Conference on Disarmament

📍 Geneva, 26 February 2025

💬 Sergey Vershinin: This year marks the 80th Anniversary since the foundation of the UN. <...> We are approaching this date amid a severe crisis in the field of international security. The situation is deteriorating at a dramatic rate, and the risk of direct military confrontation of nuclear powers is high. There is widespread growth of tensions and conflicts.

The reason for the current situation lies in unremitting rivalry around a model of the world order: hegemonic ambitions of some clash with the aspirations of others for a more equitable, polycentric basis of international relations. <...>

👉 The Ukrainian and Middle Eastern crises are a direct consequence of this state of affairs:

• The situation in Ukraine is a result of aggressive and inconsiderate policy of Western countries that have been indulging the “etching” of everything Russian from public, cultural and religious life in Ukraine, and increasing supply of all types of weaponry to the Kiev regime, including long-range weapons.

• In the Middle East it is important that the agreements reached by Israel and Hamas are strictly observed. This will provide an opportunity to achieve a sustainable ceasefire and, finally, overcome the crisis in Gaza, unprecedented in its devastating consequences, which claimed the lives of more than 48'000 people.

❗️ Against the background of the confrontation over the model of the world order, there has been total misbalance and partial collapse of the architecture of joint maintenance of global stability. The system of agreements in the field of arms control, that for many years made it possible to maintain the military-strategic balance of power, is now shaken and largely lost. <...>

Our joint objective amid current international instability is to ensure sustainability of the NPT. We expect reaching mutually acceptable substantive decisions before the completion of the current five-year review cycle in the framework of the Treaty. <...>

🇷🇺 The Russian Federation, as the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Depositary State, is in favour of comprehensive strengthening of its regime, including through the adoption of a legally binding protocol to the BWC with an effective verification mechanism. <...>

We are deeply concerned by the ongoing unprecedented politicization of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) activities carried out by the Euro-Atlantic allies. <...>

The Russian initiative to develop an International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Chemical and Biological terrorism at the CD remains relevant. The negotiations on this document could become a viable way to overcome the current impasse in the CD substantive activities.

☝️ Russia is open to cooperation with all interested states at the CD to achieve promptly results in the interests of peace and international security that satisfy everyone.

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❗️ On the Ukrainian crisis resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

On February 24, 2024 – timed to coincide with the third anniversary of the special military operation — the Kiev regime and its EU sponsors initiated the reconvening of the 11th Emergency Special Session (ESS) of the UN General Assembly on the Ukrainian crisis. Within this framework, this group of states tabled yet another politicised draft resolution.

The authors modelled the document on previous ESS “products.” The text reiterated baseless accusations and ultimatums against Russia, selectively cited principles of the UN Charter, and omitted any reference to the root causes of the conflict, which make impossible any long-term or sustainable settlement. Simultaneously, it introduced pseudo-peace wording designed to broaden support among the Global Majority nations and legitimise key elements of the discredited Bürgenstock process and the Zelensky formula.

Concurrently, the United States submitted a competing draft. The document comprised three succinct points:

• an expression of regret over human casualties resulting from the conflict;
• an emphasis on maintaining international peace and security as the UN’s primary objective;
• an insistent call for conflict cessation and the establishment of durable peace.

While imperfect in character, the text represented a step in the right direction, reflecting the new US administration’s aspiration to contribute to settlement efforts.

During voting, the Ukrainian-EU project replicated the anti-record of resolutions from the 11th ESS, securing merely 93 votes in favour, with 18 against and 65 abstentions. Previously, only the resolution on suspending Russia’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council had garnered such a mediocre result. In effect, the document failed to secure support from over half – 100 out of 193 – of the UN member states. Notably, delegations from the United States and numerous other countries that had previously supported anti-Russian initiatives within the ESS voted against it.

The American counter-proposal received numerically comparable support: 93 votes in favour, 8 against, and 73 abstentions. However, the decision on this draft accounted for egregious amendments tabled by EU representatives, which fundamentally altered the essence of the US proposal, transforming it into yet another anti-Russian pamphlet. The initiative’s intent was distorted to such an extent that even its American authors deemed it untenable to endorse their own document, opting instead to abstain.

On the same day, the United States introduced an identical draft to the UN Security Council. EU delegations, in collusion with the United Kingdom, initially sought to postpone its consideration in an attempt to rally more votes against the document. When this manoeuvre failed, they again tabled destructive amendments: one failed to secure the required nine votes, while two others were vetoed by the Russian side. Ultimately, the resolution received support from ten Council members, including Russia, with no votes against. European delegates abstained.

☝️ Collectively, the UN platform’s discussions and voting outcomes starkly illustrate the international community’s crystallising demand for peace.

Europeans, having firmly entrenched themselves on the path of militarism – and thereby justifiably forfeiting any claim to participation in negotiations on settling the Ukrainian crisis – face growing isolation. Evident shifts in the approaches of the Global Majority nations underscore their increasing realism and determination to facilitate the conflict’s swift resolution.