Accredited European ambassadors in Managua hoisted the Ukrainian flag in Nicaragua, an ally of Russia, on Wednesday in solidarity with the Russian invasion against that European country.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortegawho maintains a frontal speech against European countries and the United States, is an old ally of the interests of Russia.
The flag of Ukraine was hoisted jtogether with the European Union (EU) at the residence of the French ambassador in Nicaragua, Brieuc Pont, south of Managua, where a ceremony called “United for Ukraine” was held.
“13 days ago, the Russian Federation launched a brutal attack on the Republic of Ukraine. This attack, of unprecedented proportions in the recent history of Europe, constitutes, as confirmed by the vast majority of nations, what is called in international law a crime of aggression, ”said the French ambassador in his speech.
“Today we are witnesses to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, in an imperialist attitude towards its neighbors that creates chaos and threats to international peace and security,” continued the diplomat, whose country is in charge of the presidency of the Council of the EU.
Pont accused the Russian government not only of violating international law, but also of breaking its word.
“Today, what we thought inconceivable, is reproduced in the name of baseless ethnocentric claims, a country decides to seize neighboring lands, considering them theirs,” he said.
The French ambassador explained that the act of support for Ukraine, in Managua, “consists of expressing the solidarity of our nations with the Ukrainian people and their democratically elected authorities.”
Ortega supports Putin
The President of the Russian Duma —Lower House of the Russian Parliament—, Vyacheslav Volodin, visited Nicaragua at the end of last February. In a session in the National Assembly, dominated by the Sandinista Front, he declared that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was intended to “prevent a large-scale war.”
Days before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s deputy prime minister, Yuri Borisov, also visited Nicaragua. At the close of that visit, on February 17, President Ortega said that he was in solidarity with Moscow in the invasion of Ukraine.
“(In) these are times when empires threaten peace again, and threaten peace in the way they are attacking Russia,” Ortega said, referring to the tensions between Russia and the United States due to the crisis. in Ukraine.
“Our encouragement in this fight that the Russian people are waging for peace,” Ortega added then.
In 2008, a year after Ortega returned to power, Nicaragua joined Russia in recognizing the independence of the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and in 2020 established a consulate in Crimea, a Ukrainian territory annexed to Russia. .
“Russia is not the victim”
Likewise, he criticized the “large number of lies by Russia” to justify “this aggression and the war crimes committed”, and maintained that “neither Europe, nor Ukraine, nor the Atlantic Alliance wanted this war”.
“On the contrary, we have done everything possible to avoid it. This war is not a pacifying intervention by Russia in response to an alleged 2014 coup or hypothetical Western-supported bombings of pro-independence regions,” he noted.
“This war is also not a conflict between NATO and the West on one side, and Russia on the other, as some may write: NATO is a defensive alliance, there are no NATO troops or bases in Ukraine,” he continued.
“Russia claims, among other Nazi conspiracy tales, that the West’s purpose would be to install nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The power of the imagination is truly limitless,” he added.
For the French ambassador, “Russia is not the victim, but (yes) the aggressor. And she knows it.”
“The very simple truth is that this war is the fruit of a spirit of revenge in certain sectors of Russian society, fueled by a revisionist reading of our history, which brings the world back to the darkest hours of empires and invasions,” he considered.
A humanitarian catastrophe
The diplomat said that “it is necessary that dialogue prevail over force”, because “if we do not manage to put an end to this war, it will have human, political and economic consequences for all the member countries of the United Nations”.
At the end of his speech, Pont paid tribute to the Ukrainians “who joined forces in the sacred struggle for the freedom of their homeland, for their sovereignty, for their right to self-determination and against interference”, and asked for a minute of silence for the victims.
Later, he gave the floor to the Ukrainian ambassador to Mexico, Oksana Dramarétska, who through a recorded video thanked the solidarity and support for her country.
He noted that “in the heart of Europe the large-scale war initiated by Russia against Ukraine continues”, where, he said, “a true genocide against the Ukrainian people” occurs, which has forced more than two million people to leave their country. .
“It is a true humanitarian catastrophe in the center of Europe in the 21st century,” said Dramarétska, who argued that “Ukraine’s position is very firm: we are not going to accept any ultimatum from Russia.”
“The question of sovereignty, of territorial integrity with Ukraine, is not discussed. This will be a victory of good against evil, of light over darkness. Do not remain silent, glory to Ukraine”, he concluded.
The event was attended by representatives of the embassies of Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Colombia.
