Victory 80

Citizens of Russia, friends,

The year 2022 is drawing to a close. It was a year of difficult but necessary decisions, of important steps towards Russia's full sovereignty and a powerful consolidation of our society.

It was a year that put many things in their place, and drew a clear line between courage and heroism, on the one hand, and betrayal and cowardice on the other, showed us that there is nothing stronger than love for our near and dear, loyalty to our friends and comrades-in-arms, and devotion to our Fatherland.

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.

I am submitting for your consideration the draft laws on the ratification of the treaties between the Russian Federation and the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions on admitting them to the Russian Federation and on the creation of new regions in the Russian Federation.

The annual meetings of the heads of security agencies and intelligence services of the CIS states clearly show the high level of cooperation, trust and mutual understanding among our states.

As you know, referenda on accession to Russia have been held in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The official results will be announced in the next few days. This is the long-awaited development for the people of Donbas. It should bring peace to their lands, which they have not seen for eight years. For all that time the population of those areas has lived in constant fear for their lives. Throughout those years, bombardments of the DPR and LPR were killing about ten people a week, including children. As for the residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, they will finally be able to know for sure that no one is going to deprive them of their right to speak Russian and have their children educated in the Russian language. They will know for sure that on the Victory Day, which is a sacred holiday to us all, they will be able to pay tribute to those who fought against Nazis to liberate their lands rather than those who collaborated with them and committed heinous crimes.

We are meeting at a both challenging and dramatic moment. Crisis situations are growing, and the international security situation is deteriorating rapidly.

Instead of engaging in honest dialogue and searching for compromises, we must deal with misinformation, as well as coarsely staged incidents and provocations. The policy line adopted by the West undermines trust in international institutions, which are tasked with coordinating various interests and international law as a guarantee of fairness to protect the weak from arbitrary rule. We are witnessing these negative trends in their quintessential form here in the United Nations, which rose from the rubble of German fascism and Japanese militarism and was established to promote friendly relations among its members and to prevent conflict among them.

As I understand it, today’s meeting was motivated by a striving to discuss the issue of “impunity” in Ukraine. I consider this to be timely. This term fully reflects what has been taking place in that country since 2014. At that time, nationalist radical forces, overt Russophobes and neo-Nazis came to power there because of an armed coup, with direct support from the Western countries. Immediately after this, they embarked on a path of lawlessness and complete neglect for basic human rights and freedoms – the right to life, freedom of speech, access to information, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and the use of a native tongue.

I would like to emphasize that the collective West, led by the United States, is openly seeking to defeat Russia "on the battlefield." The United States and its allies are ready to sacrifice Ukraine for the sake of their geopolitical goals. To achieve them, they pump the country with weapons, and this leads to an escalated and prolonged conflict. It puts off the prospects of its settlement.

The subject of this address is the situation in Donbass and the course of the special military operation to liberate it from the neo-Nazi regime, which seized power in Ukraine in 2014 as the result of an armed state coup.

Today I am addressing you – all citizens of our country, people of different generations, ages and ethnicities, the people of our great Motherland, all who are united by the great historical Russia, soldiers, officers and volunteers who are fighting on the frontline and doing their combat duty, our brothers and sisters in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions and other areas that have been liberated from the neo-Nazi regime.

On September 19, 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry hosted the opening of the exhibition of archive records on the 250th anniversary of the reunification of the peoples of Russia and Belarus. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made introductory remarks.