Ukraine

"After the murder of [former DNR leader] Alexander Zakharchenko under the conditions of a possible vacuum of power, there was a real risk of the total destabilization of the situation in southeastern Ukraine…. The holding of elections made it possible to avoid such a scenario.”

"According to observers, the elections were democratic and open."

"...in 1612 the word Ukraine was not heard anywhere.”

“Don’t you think this is political paranoia?”

“Russia’s military budget has been decreasing, not increasing, year after year. You’d have thought NATO intelligence would have spotted that. Now compare Moscow’s military spending to NATO’s, which is almost a trillion dollars a year. It literally accounts for half the world’s military spending. I mean, there’s no competition here.”

“We love and are proud of President Vladimir Putin, because he is a friend of Palestine and not only Palestine, but all the people who are seeking freedom. President Putin succeeded in restoring Russia’s authority in the international arena and forced all to respect Russia.”

“#Russia’s 82nd humanitarian convoy delivers 700+ tonnes of supplies to the people of #Donetsk & #Lugansk, including food packages for children, medical equipment and first aid kits. All cargo underwent thorough customs inspection. #HelpingDonbass”

“Alexander Hug is well informed. For four years he’s been working in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and in Ukraine as the head of the OSCE mission. They basically have open access to any place in the country. I’m not sure about western Ukraine, but here they have free access. They are fully informed. The statement he voiced today is confirmation of what we’ve been broadcasting from here for four years. The armed people here are the locals … But Kyiv naturally began screaming that it had been betrayed. The OSCE destroyed the fairytale that Ukrainian television has been broadcasting.”

“Relations between Moscow and Kyiv deteriorated after the coup in Ukraine, the return of the Crimea to Russia, and the beginning of the conflict in the Donbas.”

“There is an old joke... Maybe some don’t know it, it will be interesting. It goes like this. Question: ‘How do you relax?’ Answer: ‘I don’t get tense.” The same goes for tensions in international affairs. We don’t create tensions for anybody; we don’t create any problems.”

“We are accused of something, and ‘with a high degree of probability,’ as they say; we did this or that, intervened here, did something there. At the same time, no one considers it necessary to provide any evidence.”

“It’s no secret to anyone, Western journalists write openly that Bellingcat is connected to special services, they leak information through it to have some effect on public opinion.”