Ukraine’s Right to be Itself. Sovereign, Indivisible, Independent
Address by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the occasion of Constitution Day, the 30^th anniversary of the Constitution of Ukraine, delivered on June 28, 2026.
The wounded churches of Ukraine. Attacked by evil. Riddled with Russian bullets. Shattered by guided aerial bombs and missiles. Famous cathedrals in cities of millions and small churches in our villages. Churches, mosques, synagogues. Seven hundred and forty religious sites in Ukraine that Putin has struck. This is who we are fighting. This is what our enemy is.
On the night of June 15, he added the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra and the Dormition Cathedral to the list of evidence of his madness. Yet another strike, yet another manifestation of their true nature, and at the same time yet another proof that the unity of Ukrainians is our greatest strength. That night, our Lavra stood firm thanks to our people.
Distinguished guests, dear warriors, our firefighters and first responders, statesmen, dear presidents, representatives of the clergy and the diplomatic corps, dear Ukrainian people,
Today is a special day. Emotionally and spiritually very powerful. Sunday. Constitution Day of Ukraine. Exactly thirty years ago, an important pillar of our state’s independence was established. It was when Ukrainians stopped living under the old law, and most importantly, someone else’s law, and fully began to build a new life, their own life, based on new foundations and principles, the foremost of which is Ukraine’s right to be itself. Sovereign, indivisible, independent. These are the fundamental things of our Fundamental Law, the Constitution of Ukraine. But any articles of the Constitution would remain only letters on paper without the millions of Ukrainians who are ready to defend our independence, their land, their rights and freedoms – and to do so in unity. And only in this way.
We have seen this unity hundreds of times. We saw it on the night of June 15, right here, in this symbolic place of our strength, in our Lavra, near our Dormition Cathedral. The cathedral that stood firm, that people prayed for together, and that was saved together by employees of the State Emergency Service – thank you – our priests, the staff of the national preserve, and everyone who cared. They saved unique exhibits and relics, fought fire and wind, and did so selflessly, proactively, and in a coordinated way, despite the risk of another enemy strike and without any additional, special instructions. No one needed to be told why this mattered, or just how much.
This is symbolic. It is a manifestation of our maturity and, in particular, of our understanding of the Constitution of Ukraine, which gives Ukrainians our bearings. But from there, it is our people who fill it with meaning, who fill it with life – every day – and prove that the strength of Ukraine’s Fundamental Law lies not in the legal beauty of its articles, but in the true unity of Ukraine.
It is this unity of ours – on the night of June 15, on the morning of February 24, and throughout the entire war – that is one of the reasons why we are standing together and standing here today, on our own land, under our own flags, battle standards, and crosses, celebrating our own holidays and paying tribute to our state, our people, and our Constitution. To everything that unites us when we know firmly: the Lavra stands, St. Sophia stands, and therefore Kyiv stands, Ukraine stands. It stands and will stand firm.
Because people fight for it and pray for it in every corner of our country. And today’s joint prayer here will be a reflection of this. A unique, absolutely unique prayer, held in this format for the first time, bringing together priests from different regions of Ukraine. Those whose churches have been damaged and destroyed by Russian strikes: Ukraine’s wounded churches in the Kharkiv region, the Sumy region, Dnipro, Chernihiv, and Irpin. Together with them, priests from Berdiansk, the Odesa region, and the Ternopil region, who went through the hell of Russian captivity, will pray for Ukraine. 
Father Vasyl Fedorenko, who combined service to God and military service – defending Mariupol and baptizing fighters at Azovstal. Chaplain Mykola Luchynskyi, who opened an exhibition about this war in a church in Khmelnytskyi, bringing its exhibits himself after his regular trips to the front. 
A parish minister in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ivan Teremko, who once underwent an amputation and today visits our severely wounded fighters and strengthens their spirit. The head of the Polish church in our Mykolaiv region, Paweł Staniaszek, who was born in Poland but has lived in Ukraine since 2014, having chosen helping our people and our warriors at the front as his mission. And Valentyn Horokhovskyi from Kherson, who did not surrender his church to the occupiers, evacuated many children from the captured city, and returned to his church after Kherson was liberated – because truth always prevails.
Today we will hear them, hear their stories, united by one central moral: everything that has been destroyed, we will rebuild, because the light in the soul has endured. Ukraine is strong, and it is strong when the state, the church, our military, the people of Ukraine, and the world – the entire world that is helping us so much – become one whole. For the sake of peace and for the sake of Ukraine. This may not be written directly in Ukraine’s Constitution, but it certainly corresponds to the spirit of the law by which we are building our life in this difficult time. And it certainly corresponds to the bright ideas with which our fallen heroes, our heroic warriors, every man and woman who gave their lives so that our state may live defended Ukraine and independence. I now ask everyone to honor them with a moment of silence.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
2026 is a special year for our state. Ukraine is marking anniversaries: the adoption of the Constitution, the establishment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the restoration of our state symbols and the hryvnia. And the culmination of all this is August 24, 2026 – Independence Day of Ukraine. The 35th anniversary of the restoration of our independence. It is important that in such a year, Ukraine is giving rise to new, landmark elements of its state-building.
Today, I submitted to Parliament a law on the Ukrainian National Pantheon. The names of all the heroes who, across different centuries and eras, fought for Ukraine and inspired Ukraine will be brought together and forever inscribed in our history – with a capital letter, with great respect and attention from the state, our state – Ukraine, which respects itself, values its people, and defends what is its own – its own, and this is very important, its own right to be Ukrainian. When no one, ever, will dictate how we should live, how we should speak, whom we should love, whom we should be grateful to, or which heroes we should honor.
And it is precisely in this context, as a sign of exactly this kind of gratitude, that today we are righting yet another historical injustice. From now on, here in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a bust of a great Ukrainian and patron of the Lavra, Ivan Mazepa, will stand, as it rightfully should. 
For centuries, Russia has smeared his name, striving to make Ukrainians view their own history through the eyes of others, convincing our people that Mazepa was a traitor. This is a lie, and this lie has failed. Forever.
And today, we honor our own outstanding statesman and military leader, patron, and head of the Cossack State, Ivan Mazepa.
It is important that we are doing this precisely here, in the Lavra, which truly flourished under his patronage – with its churches, bell towers, and its unique Ukrainian Baroque face.
And without doubt, a figure of this scale deserves a full-fledged monument in the capital of our state. I believe that there is an ideal location for it. It has been there since December 2013 on Shevchenko Boulevard, and I am certain that where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand firm.
Dear friends, dear citizens,
Today, we are at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. This is truly our pride. It is one of the oldest holy sites of the Christian world, which was a bastion of Orthodoxy in Eastern Europe. And it has always been much more than just a monastery. At a time when Moscow did not yet exist, the Lavra was a cradle of development, where Ukrainian history, education, science, art, icon painting, book printing, and medicine took shape. Here, the Ukrainian soul, our memory, and our national identity were formed.
Already in August, on the Feast of the Dormition, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra will mark 975 years since its founding. This is a special milestone. For in just one generation, Ukrainians on this land will be celebrating the Lavra’s millennium. Our national holy site, alongside St. Sophia, the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernihiv, and many other witnesses to the thousand-year existence of Kyivan Rus’ – all of this together definitively affirms the fact that the roots of Ukrainians on this land are vast, strong, and our own.
I am speaking now about an event that will take place 25 years from now for a reason. Ukraine will mark milestones such as the Lavra’s millennium with dignity. And preparations will begin today. After all, this is about a long and painstaking process: restoring and preserving dozens of cultural monuments, museum collections, the Lavra’s buildings, our great heritage – one of the world’s centers of Christianity. This requires a major, collective effort, which we are beginning today. And we must mark the Lavra’s millennium in the same unity that strengthens and protects our people and our state. I am signing the relevant Decree here and now.
Dear people,
Thirty years ago, the Constitution of Ukraine was adopted. The Constitution of a democratic state. A free state, capable of defending its values. A state that, thanks to the Constitution, has a solid foundation for building Ukraine – a European Ukraine.
Ukraine has already come a long way to the EU. Much has been built on this foundation, negotiations on our membership, future EU membership, have already begun, clusters are already being opened, and every such step brings us closer together – Ukraine and the European Union, Ukrainians and, or course, all of Europe. Behind every such success of the state stand our citizens, our warriors, and all our people who protect the security and the future of all of Europe. And who, through all their actions every day, bring closer not merely accession, but our affirmation as an integral part of the common European home. And behind every such step also stand our like-minded people from other countries – true friends and allies, tested by time and struggle, who have proven that Ukraine and Europe are one.
Ukraine will honor all such individuals with a new state award: the Order of Europe. A symbol of the effectiveness of our joint defense of Europe. 
Ukraine has fully earned the right to have an order with this very name – earned it through its round-the-clock fight for Europe’s life. And all those who have stood and continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in this fight will be honored with this distinction: Ukraine’s Order of Europe.
Dear Ukrainians,
I began this speech by speaking about what a decisive force our Ukrainian unity is. And I want to emphasize this once again, because today we are all united in what matters most: Ukraine wants peace. Ukraine wants to live its own life on its own land and be free to determine its future, to choose its friends, to be proud of those who truly deserve it, and to be strong enough not to surrender what is truly valuable to all of us. When Ukrainians are together, and when we work toward a common goal, we achieve extraordinary things. I believe that together we will also achieve what we all dream of – a durable and just peace, peace for Ukraine. It will certainly come. Our independence will endure. Our Ukrainian people will endure. Our sacred places will endure. We protect them. We care for the state. We work for our Ukraine. I thank everyone who protects those beside them and cares for our national interests as they would for themselves.
Happy Constitution Day of Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!

Kyiv’s Systematic Plan to Reclaim Crimea and Restore Ukraine’s Sovereignty

It may not be as unexpectedly sudden as Russia’s green men invading Crimea in 2014 or as massive as the D-Day invasion but what we’re witnessing taking place on Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula is a deliberate, systematic implementation of a plan to reclaim Crimea.

It is a methodical strategy of “Logistics Lockdown,” systematically severing supply lines, bridges, and rear infrastructure to turn the peninsula into an untenable island and force a Russian withdrawal based on international law.

Kyiv’s campaign isn’t designed to be a sudden, massive frontal assault; it is a systematic, calculated choking operation. By meticulously taking out the bridges, railway junctions, and ferry crossings, Ukrainian military officials are cutting the literal lifelines that sustain the Russian military presence on the peninsula.

When you strip away a garrison’s ammunition, fuel, and ability to retreat or reinforce, you turn a strategic fortress into an isolated trap. It is a methodical approach to rendering the occupation entirely untenable, making expulsion or withdrawal the only logical end state for the Kremlin.

The intensifying campaign of Ukrainian strikes across Crimea – targeting air defense networks, fuel depots, vehicular crossings, and critical rail bridges (such as the recent destruction of the strategic railway bridge near Rozdolne over the North Crimean Canal) – is part of this highly coordinated, multi-phase military strategy.

While the disruptions have caused notable anxiety among local residents and paralyzed civilian fuel sales and passenger train transit, Kyiv’s operational objectives are deeply pragmatic and rooted in international law, rather than seeking a “war trophy.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s operational intent is built on a sovereignty strategy and not a Crimean trophy hunt. The campaign’s focus is on striking logistical arteries in Crimea—such as the Chonhar bridge, Kerch Strait ferries, and railway links that directly serve his recently proclaimed this 40-day pressure strategy.

Kyiv's plans for the peninsula include:   

1. Compelling Peace through Leveraged Strength

Zelenskyy’s stated objective is to “compel the aggressor state” into a negotiated settlement by making the economic, political, and military costs of continuing the war entirely unsustainable for Moscow. Kyiv recently signaled that his patience with open-ended attrition is not infinite; the 40-day campaign is the military enforcement mechanism behind that diplomatic posture. 

Ukrainian defense officials and military planners explicitly state that the immediate goal is not a bloody, frontal amphibious assault to storm the peninsula. Instead, the strategy is to systematically turn Crimea into an untenable island for the Russian military.

By taking out the Chonhar Bridge, disrupting the R-280 “Novorossiya” land corridor, and repeatedly striking the Kerch Strait ferries and rail bridges, Ukraine is executing what Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov calls a “Logistics Lockdown.”

As Eskender Bariiev, head of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, recently observed, these systematic interdiction efforts are intentionally turning the peninsula into a “natural cauldron.” If Ukraine can completely sever the supply lines, the massive Russian military presence in the south will be left without fuel, ammunition, or electricity, rendering Moscow’s defensive positions entirely unsustainable.

2. Crimea as a "Logistics Cauldron"

Military planners are not looking to execute a bloody, amphibious storming of Crimea to hoist a “war trophy.” Instead, by systematically severing the vehicular and rail bridges, they aim to cut off food, ammunition, and fuel to the Russian southern grouping. The goal is to make Crimea militarily untenable, forcing a strategic retreat or a diplomatic concession.

3. Restoration of Legal Sovereignty

For Ukraine, recovering Crimea is about national survival and international law, not a prestige prize. Leaving the peninsula under occupation would allow Russia to permanently blockade the Black Sea and launch missile strikes across mainland Ukraine. Furthermore, for Ukraine, it’s a matter of national survival and territorial baseline – neutralizing it as a launchpad for future aggression, which Zelenskyy fears is the only way they see a path to a truly durable, permanent peace. Kyiv views the full restoration of its pre-2014 borders as the only baseline that guarantees a permanent, just peace.

This way, Kyiv keeps the focus exactly where they want it: on international law and long-term continental security.

For Ukraine, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable baselines – they are permanent rights, not a prize won in a game or a temporary asset to be bartered away. Treating territorial integrity as anything less than absolute would mean accepting that a nation’s right to exist is conditional. By framing it as a sovereignty strategy, the focus remains strictly where international law dictates it should be: that borders are inviolable, and a nation’s independence is forever.

Thus, a successful outcome would be a powerful and historically poetic justification for Ukraine’s victory and Russia’s defeat.  A “green men in reverse” outcome would be the ultimate strategic irony. In 2014, Russia used the stealthy, deniable infiltration of its "little green men" to sever Crimea from Ukraine without a conventional declaration of war, catching the international community off guard.

Now, by systematically choking off the peninsula’s logistics, cutting the bridges, and rendering the territory completely unlivable for an occupying army, Kyiv is setting the stage for a highly visible, methodical reversal. Instead of a stealth infiltration, it's an undeniable, high-tech siege designed to leave the occupiers with no choice but to retreat.

If successful, it wouldn't just be a major military victory; it would visually dismantle the very myth of permanence and invincibility that Moscow built around the 2014 annexation. And then tentacles of Kyiv’s victory could spread across Ukraine, defeating and expelling Russians back to their diabolical Motherland. 

Russians Behead two Ukrainian Soldiers; Cases of Killing POWs Dramatically Rise

I have said this in the past. The cruelty of Russian cutthroats in their war against Ukraine knows no bounds.

Russian troops brutally beheaded the bodies of two Ukrainian service members on the Huliaipole front on May 12.

The Ukrainian General Staff reported that on May 12 soldiers of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment were ambushed on the Huliaipole front by an infiltrated Russian group.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the battle.

Huliaipole is a historic city situated in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine, positioned along the continuous flatlands of the Eurasian steppe region. Strategically located near the borders of the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, it sits along key regional crossroads that have historically connected agricultural hubs to the industrial sectors of the Donbas.

“Intelligence intercepts indicate that the commander of a unit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation gave a direct order to desecrate the bodies of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

“In particular, a radio intercept records the commander ordering two heads to be cut off ‘for confirmation’ and placed in a visible location at the edge of a field. His subordinate expressed readiness to carry out the order.”

The General Staff noted that this constitutes a gross and deliberate violation of the rules and customs of war. The Russian unit whose service members committed the atrocities has been preliminarily identified.

Available reports indicate that the criminal order was issued by the commander who had previously ordered the mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The unit whose soldiers took part in the acts of desecration has been preliminarily identified, according to the General Staff. The commander who issued the order is believed to have previously ordered his troops to mock Ukrainian prisoners of war.

“By desecrating the bodies of fallen soldiers, the occupiers have once again demonstrated their sadistic nature and excessive, ostentatious cruelty,” the military said.

“This is a gross, deliberate violation of the rules and customs of war — a war crime with no statute of limitations. The enemy's cynicism and cruelty know no bounds,” the General Staff observed.

According to official reports from Ukraine and the United Nations, there has been a dramatic and highly alarming surge in the execution and killing of Ukrainian POWs by Russian forces. Because these actions are largely carried out in frontline combat zones or deep within captivity, authorities track the statistics through ongoing criminal investigations and international monitoring.

The current recorded figures include:

• Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General: Ukrainian law enforcement has documented over 270 to 273 cases of executed Ukrainian prisoners of war since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

• The Surge in 2024 and 2025: Ukrainian and international investigators note that the vast majority of these killings are concentrated recently. For instance, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) explicitly flagged an "alarming rise" in early 2025, documenting at least 79 executions across 24 separate incidents in just a six-month period following August 2024. Ukrainian prosecutors noted a severe spike in late 2024 alone, opening investigations into dozens of point-blank shootings of surrendering soldiers on fronts like Pokrovsk, Selydove, and Kursk.

• Deaths in Custody: Beyond immediate battlefield executions upon surrender, European and Ukrainian tracking agencies have recorded at least 177 Ukrainian POWs who have died directly in Russian captivity due to severe mistreatment, torture, or medical neglect.

Ukrainian investigators have launched dozens of criminal procedures regarding these executions, though gathering evidence remains extraordinarily difficult due to active occupation. Both Ukrainian officials and international bodies like the UN have warned that the frequency and open sharing of video footage of these executions by Russian personnel point toward a highly systematic, theater-wide policy rather than isolated incidents by individual soldiers.

While there is no single, definitive master tally strictly tracking decapitations as a separate category from other execution styles, at least four distinct, high-profile instances of Ukrainian soldiers being beheaded by Russian forces have been publicly documented and verified through video evidence, photography, or aerial intelligence.

Because these atrocities are investigated as part of a broader, theater-wide surge in war crimes against prisoners of war, the specific cases that have emerged include:

• April 2023 (Two Separate Incidents): Two highly graphic videos circulated online within days of each other. One video showed the active, live decapitation of a captured Ukrainian soldier. A second video, posted around the same time, showed the headless corpses of two additional Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground alongside severed hands near a destroyed armored vehicle.  

• August 2022 (Popasna, Luhansk Oblast): Photographic evidence emerged and was verified by local Ukrainian officials showing a severed head and hands impaled on stakes outside a residential home in the occupied town of Popasna.  

• June 2024 (Volnovakha Raion, Donetsk Oblast): Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance drones captured footage of a Ukrainian military vehicle on the frontlines with the decapitated head of a Ukrainian soldier placed on top of it. Ukraine's Prosecutor General opened a formal war crimes investigation, noting intelligence that Russian field commanders in that specific sector had issued direct orders not to take prisoners but to execute surrendering troops with maximum brutality.   The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) and Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General treat these beheadings as part of a broader systemic pattern. In total, Ukrainian law enforcement has opened investigations into more than 270 to 273 documented cases of summary executions of Ukrainian POWs since 2022, alongside reports of at least 177 to 206 deaths resulting directly from torture, starvation, or mutilation within the Russian penitentiary system.

The execution and desecration of prisoners of war represent severe violations of the Third Geneva Convention, which explicitly mandates that POWs must be protected at all times, particularly against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity.

When these legal protections are shattered, the international community and “the civilized world” have several diplomatic, legal, and economic mechanisms to react, hold perpetrators accountable, and attempt to deter future atrocities: Ultimately, because there is no global police force capable of entering a sovereign nation to make immediate arrests, the civilized world’s reaction relies on a strategy of unyielding documentation, economic asphyxiation, and permanent legal jeopardy – ensuring that those who order or execute these crimes can never safely leave their borders or escape the reach of international law.

US Ambassador to UN Paints Gloomy Outlook for Russia’s War Options

The US Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) confirmed that the tide is turning against Russia in its war against Ukraine. Apparently, Ukraine does have cards and numbers that President Donald Trump had warned that it doesn’t.

Speaking at the UN on June 22, 2026, Ambassador Dan Negrea, representative of the United States to ECOSOC, reaffirmed Washington’s support for Ukraine in defending its freedom and sovereignty.

Negrea noted in the aftermath of Russia’s attack against Kyiv Pechersk Lavra that it stands with the “Ukrainian population that is suffering from attacks on June 14-15 that damaged its critical infrastructure and cultural heritage.”

Negrea emphasized that “Russia should make a deal. Time is not on Moscow’s side.”

The American diplomat reasoned that Ukraine’s chances against Russia are greatly improving while the opposite is the case for Moscow. “Russia is taking 40,000 casualties per month. Its economy is severely strained. Ukraine is innovating quickly. Diplomacy and negotiation, not more bloodshed, are the only answer. Nothing else will stop this senseless killing. This war has gone on for far too long, and it must end,” he said.

Indeed, Ukraine’s technological innovations are allowing its Armed Forces to strike enemy targets deep inside Russia.

“The United States is committed to reaching a ceasefire and negotiated settlement to end the Russia-Ukraine war as soon as possible. Enough is enough. It is time for an immediate ceasefire. Now is the time for Russia and Ukraine to return to the negotiation table and get a peace deal done,” Negrea concluded. 

Lavrov’s Typical Exoneration of Russia’s Crimes

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s latest attempt at literary creativity is a classic piece of Russian state rhetoric and fabrications, blending historical revisionism, omissions, and inverted logic to frame Russia as the victim and Ukraine and the West as the sole aggressors and perpetrators of falsehoods. However, Lavrov’s essay is replete with misconceptions, misinterpretations, fabrications, and downright lies in the political genre of his contemporaries and predecessors.

You can read the article, which appeared on Friday, June 19, on https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/2120138/ .

Lavrov uses the term “NATO expansion” as an explanation for Russia’s global paranoia that has evolved into belligerent levels. These points rely on a fundamentally warped premise of international law and state sovereignty, twisting defensive reactions into offensive actions. He goes to lengths to dismiss Moscow’s latest invasion of Ukraine and the resulting four-year-plus war without ever citing Russia’s original typically ridiculous reason of looking for Nazis in Ukraine. Lavrov claimed that the West, notably NATO, goaded Ukraine into seeking accession to it and then provoked the start of the war that actually Russia began on February 24, 2022. The goal of this Russian campaign was to invade, occupy and imprison Ukraine in its notorious prison of nations.

Lavrov wrote that the term “NATO expansion” is the reason for every move by the West against Russia. He claims that in reality it is a “smokescreen for the geopolitical expansion of Western institutions.”

However, Lavrov denies the historical reality that NATO does not “expand” via imperial conquest, which has been Russia’s favorite method of aggrandizing land and peoples. In reality, sovereign, independent Eastern European nations have voluntarily applied to join NATO out of historical and well-founded fears of Russian aggression. That is why Ukraine is hoping to become a member and help the alliance with its battlefield knowledge and skills against Russian murderers. Ukraine wants to live rather than die in Russian bondage.

The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement of 2013 cited by Lavrov was negotiated over years by Ukraine because its nation and Verkhovna Rada overwhelmingly wanted integration with Europe. It wasn’t an ultimatum; it was a sovereign choice that Russia economically blackmailed Yanukovych into abandoning at the eleventh hour, leading to street riots. The subsequent 2014 Ukrainian Revolution also known as the Euromaidan Revolution or Revolution of Dignity was a pivotal uprising in Kyiv that began in late 2013 when Yanukovych abandoned a deal to integrate with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia. The demonstrations escalated into deadly violence in February 2014, resulting in Yanukovych’s ousting and a new, pro-Western government. It also contributed to Moscow’s first wave of its latest aggression of Ukrainian eastern oblasts.

Lavrov also claims the West wants a ceasefire “for one reason only: to prevent the collapse of Armed Forces of Ukraine.” If truth be told, this flips the concept of peace on its head. The global community called for ceasefires and troop withdrawals to uphold the UN Charter and stop the slaughter of civilians, not as a tactical military ruse.

Lavrov’s claims distort actual historical events and agreements to create a false narrative of Western and Ukrainian bad faith.

Rather than a pro-Ukrainian independence revolution, Lavrov labels the Euromaidan Revolution a “coup d’état” orchestrated by the Western powers. Actually, Euromaidan was a mass, grassroots popular protest against Yanukovych’s sudden pivot toward Moscow and his regime’s subsequent violent crackdown on student protestors. It is estimated that about 2 million Ukrainians from around the country packed Independence Square in Kyiv to voice their support for an independent Ukraine and outrage against Russia and Yanukovych. The Russian gauleiter in Ukraine ultimately fled the country after his police killed nearly 100 protestors, and Ukraine’s democratically elected parliament constitutionally voted to remove him and schedule immediate elections.

As a distortion of the Mink Agreements cited by Lavrov, the Russian official weaponized quotes from former German and French leaders Angela Merkel and François Hollande to claim the West “never genuinely intended” to implement the 2015 agreements and only wanted to “buy time.”

Truthfully, this is a severe distortion of their actual statements. Merkel and Hollande noted that the Minsk pause allowed Ukraine to build its resilience, but the historical record shows Russia repeatedly violated the agreements from day one by refusing to withdraw its heavy weaponry, refusing to return control of the border to Ukraine, and continually fueling the war in the Donbas.

Lavrov concocted highly distorted accounts of specific events, tailored to generate emotional outrage and vilify Ukrainians.

For example, the Odessa Tragedy of May 2, 2014: The text references “the burning alive of dozens of innocent supporters of closer ties with Russia.”

Truthfully, this is a heavily manufactured narrative. Independent investigations (including by the Council of Europe) showed that the Trade Unions House fire in Odesa was a tragedy resulting from violent street clashes initiated by pro-Russian activists against a pro-Ukrainian march. Both sides threw Molotov cocktails, and the fire was a horrific accident, not a premeditated, one-sided “burning alive” tolerated by the West.

Lavrov further asserts that the Anglo-French “Coalition of the Willing” was a plan to “rapidly deploy military contingents from the Anglo-French ‘Coalition of the Willing’ onto Ukrainian soil.”

Actually, this is a fabrication designed to stoke fears of a direct World War Three scenario. While European leaders have discussed various forms of strategic ambiguity or training missions, there is no joint operational plan to deploy British and French combat brigades to fight Russia on Ukrainian soil.

Lavrov composes terms such as “legal warfare” and Illegal Maritime Detentions. He complained about an “infrastructure” of accountability (Register of Damage, Special Tribunal) and accuses the EU of “detaining merchant vessels on the high seas.”

However, the framing of international legal accountability for war crimes and aggression as “legal warfare” is a rhetorical tactic to delegitimize the international rule of law. Furthermore, maritime enforcements in the Baltic or Atlantic comply with international sanctions regimes regarding illicit cargo and safety regulations, not piracy.

Lavrov’s statements and observations throughout his essay are completely decoupled from objective reality, relying on absolute denial of documented facts.

As Hitler and Moscow have attempted to do in the past, they really aren’t defending “citizens and compatriots.” The text claims Russia’s goals are to ensure “respect and dignity... including the right to speak their native Russian language. The reality in this case is perhaps the most glaring lie. Russia’s “special military operation,” as it calls its latest all-out war against Ukraine, has leveled predominantly Russian-speaking cities (like Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Severodonetsk), killing tens of thousands of the very Russian-speaking “compatriots” Moscow claims to protect. This group of Ukrainian patriots, many of whom are frontline fighters for Ukraine’s freedom, fell victim to Russia’s plans to defeat, occupy and claim Ukraine as its own territory.

Russia says it has explored “Every Diplomatic Avenue,” according to Lavrov. He claims Russia tried everything to defuse the crisis before 2022, the date Russia militarily crossed Ukraine’s border.

However, in December 2021, Russia issued “security treaty” demands that were intentional non-starters – demanding NATO permanently ban Ukraine and effectively roll back its borders to 1997. This was not diplomacy; it was a manufactured pretext for an invasion that Russia was already actively amassing over 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders to execute.

Lavrov fervently sought to deny any Russian plan of imperial expansion. He claims that European assertions of Russia having “aggressive plans... far beyond Ukraine” are “nonsense, provocation, and disinformation.” Nonetheless, new former captive nations, Eastern Europe and “old” Europe are justifiably arming and preparing for a Russian invasion.

This often-repeated Russian assertion flies in the face of continuous, explicit rhetoric from the Kremlin itself, which routinely questions the sovereignty of Ukraine, the Baltic states, Moldova, and Kazakhstan, while state television regularly broadcasts threats of nuclear strikes and territorial conquest against European capitals. Putin, Lavrov and other Russian ersatz scholars and officials have argued that Ukraine as a country and Ukrainians as a nation are mere branches of Russia and the Russian people, and not independent entities. Anyone who says differently or seeks to change Moscow’s vision of this reality is threatened with nuclear destruction by Russia.

Lavrov operates on a total inversion of roles: the aggressor acts as the victim, and defensive actions by the victim and its allies are framed as unprovoked aggression. By rewriting the history of 2004, 2014, 2022 and today, Ukrainians’ defense their country against the latest Russian attempt to subjugate them, attempts to cleanse Russia of its documented violations of the UN Charter, the Budapest Memorandum and international law, and present its brutal territorial invasion as an act of self-defense.

In other words, nothing new is forthcoming from the Kremlin.

If Someone Warns You He’ll Kill You, It’s Safer to Believe Him

It has been suggested that when you’re told that a perpetrator intends to kill you, it’s safer to believe him — especially if he’s repeating his warning or threat.

Earlier this month Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine’s secret service uncovered such a plot. A couple of days later Russian drones hit targets across Ukraine, in Kyiv and the ancient, historic monastery, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which enjoys UNESCO recognition. Eleven people were killed. The Lavra was severely damaged as published photos of the blaze testified.

Sadly, Ukraine finds itself in another similar situation.

President Zelenskyy said on Saturday, June 20, that Russian forces are preparing additional colossal deadly attacks on Ukraine and warned residents to take special care. 

“Tonight and in the coming hours, it is especially important to pay close attention to air raid warnings,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “The Russians have prepared for a massive attack. Please take care of yourselves.”

Russian forces have staged a series of heavy attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks and other major cities. In the days after the strike on the Lavra, Russian cutthroats continued to launch fatal drones on Ukrainian cities increasing the count of casualties.

Zelenskyy pledged that his military would press on with its campaign of medium and long-range strikes, focused on the oil sector. Ukrainian drone pilots have significantly increased their skills and have hit Russian targets even 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine.

Zelenskiy said Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Tyumen region in western Siberia on Saturday and Ukrainian drones also struck Moscow's oil refinery twice this week. The strike on Moscow was especially troublesome for Muscovites who reportedly panic at the realization that Ukrainians are attacking their homes.

On Saturday, Russian forces attacked the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia with glide bombs, killing five people and injuring 10, Regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram. 

The attacks and casualties continue.

In southern Kherson region, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said one person had died in a drone attack on a village north of the region's main city, also called Kherson. 

Three children were injured when the central city of Poltava came under Russian shelling, local officials said.

Zelenskyy also accused Russia of bringing Belarus into the conflict, warning of “extremely dangerous” consequences. He claimed Belarus has repeaters near the border that help guide Russian drone strikes in Ukraine.

“Belarus has time to dismantle this equipment,” he said.

Zelenskyy added that Belarusian gasoline shipments to Russia increased thirteenfold between January and May compared to the same period last year, while diesel exports tripled. He emphasised that these supplies and Belarusian industrial support strengthen Minsk's position in the conflict.

On Friday, June 19, Zelenskyy warned Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that if alleged Russian drone-support equipment is not removed from Belarusian territory, Ukraine will take action to dismantle it.

"On his territory, along the two regions bordering Ukraine, there is equipment that adjusts (weapons) fire on our people. He should remove that equipment. I think a week is enough for him to do that," Zelenskyy wrote on X.

G7 Agrees: Russia doesn’t Want Negotiations

Despite their muted condemnation of Russian aggression against Ukraine and the ongoing murder of unarmed Ukrainian civilians, it seems as if the G7 members will still pursue a hardline against Moscow and hopefully will even intensify it.

French President Emmanuel Macron remarked on the sidelines of the recent G7 summit in Evian that negotiations with Russia on ending its war against Ukraine have run their course, according to The Guardian. It’s time for a new tactic.

“The United States took the initiative on negotiations, but what were the results, what was Russia’s response? None,” Macron said.

“Europeans also tried to communicate with Russia. And what happened? Nothing. Then President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready to negotiate. What did President Vladimir Putin say? ‘No.’ President Trump, like all of us, agreed there was no serious desire on Russia’s part to hold peace talks or negotiations.”

Macron said the G7’s final conclusions on Ukraine reflect “quite far-reaching” support for Kyiv and show a “very deep change in approach,” including a clear US willingness to cooperate more closely with European partners. He said he was satisfied with the summit’s outcomes, which he called “real progress” marked by unity on Ukraine.

While the summit was long on words of multilateral support, it did not raise the stakes on Russia if it continues its bloody war. It didn’t, for example, say unequivocally that the G7, NATO and the free world want Russia’s destruction and defeat. Perhaps that will come later.

Russia’s plans for ending its war against Ukraine have been presented many times by many of its leaders from Putin on down the ladder. Indeed, one or another of them had added a range of clauses to negotiations or a ceasefire but none of them have been genuine, as the free world leaders have come around to understand.

Wipe away the Kremlin’s disinformation about its intentions and you will quickly see that Putin, Lavrov, and the others want one thing: Ukraine’s surrender, defeat, and reincorporation into its prison of nations. However, that would only contribute to Russia’s expansion into the former captive nations and Eastern Europe.

After striking the ancient Ukrainian legendary house of worship in Kyiv and killing eleven people, Russians, the next day, continued without remorse its bombardment of Ukrainian cities and towns. Its cutthroats have launched hundreds of long-range drones and dozens of missiles across multiple Ukrainian regions, targeting major cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Poltava. Because Russia’s aerial campaigns routinely hit dozens of settlements across multiple front-line and central oblasts simultaneously, the exact number of distinct municipal targets is vast. Notable recent damages include:

Kyiv: Drones and missiles struck every district of the capital, severely damaging apartment buildings, setting historic cathedrals ablaze, and temporarily leaving up to 140,000 residents without power.

Dnipro & Kharkiv: Russian missile strikes on residential areas tore through apartment buildings, resulting in multiple civilian casualties and collapsing large portions of residential blocks.

Poltava & Zaporizhzhia: Strikes directly impacted energy facilities, gas production infrastructure, and critical power lines, cutting off gas supplies and forcing emergency blackouts in several localized districts.

In one instance, in the Kherson Oblast, two people were killed and 11 others injured in Russian attacks, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said. Russian forces targeted critical and residential areas, damaging four apartment buildings, four private homes, a gas pipeline, a farm, a passenger bus and vehicles.

In the meantime, Ukrainians have demonstrated that they can punch back with stunning pain. The overnight bombardment of Moscow told regular Russians that their leaders launched a war that Ukrainian soldiers have finally returned to their tsarist domain.

“Our long-range sanctions once again reached the Moscow region: for the second time in a week, the Moscow Oil Refinery was hit,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Thursday, June 18.

He added that Ukrainian forces also struck targets in Russia’s Rostov region and in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

“This is a completely fair response to Russian strikes on our cities and communities, and another important result of our soldiers’ work against facilities that support the Russian war machine,” Zelenskyy said. The bombardment of bridges to temporarily occupied Crimea may soon cutoff the peninsula from the Ukrainian mainland.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion. Some areas have reported fuel shortages.

The attack by dozens of drones came hours after Zelenskyy said he had held “an important coordination call” with the presidents of the United States and France and had won key pledges of further support from this week’s G7 summit.

“If Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the attack was part of Kyiv’s effort to bring Putin to the negotiating table. “It is time to end the aggression, time to end this war.”

Diplomatic efforts have obviously failed to bring Putin to the negotiating table. Therefore, it is totally acceptable to scare the bejesus out of average Russian citizens so that they will force their leaders to end the war by packing up and leaving Ukraine with or without negotiations.