Published in Granma, Feb 26, 2022 (With weblinks to related news and analysis further below. You can read the statement and related news weblinks here in pdf format: Statement by Cuba gov’t on Ukraine crisis, Feb 26, 2022. )
The U.S. determination to continue NATO’s progressive expansion toward the Russian Federation’s borders has brought about a scenario with implications of unpredictable scope. It could have been avoided.
The military moves by the United States and NATO toward regions adjacent to the Russian Federation in recent months are well known. They were preceded by the delivery of modern weapons to Ukraine. Together, this constitutes a military siege.
It is impossible to make a rigorous and honest examination of the current situation in Ukraine without carefully assessing the Russian Federation’s just demands on the United States and NATO, and without assessing the factors that have led to the use of force and non-observance of legal principles and international norms which Cuba strongly supports and, are, particularly for small countries, an essential resource in resisting hegemony, abuse of power and injustice.
Cuba is a country that defends International Law and is committed to the Charter of the United Nations. Cuba will always defend peace and oppose the use of force, and threats to do so, against any state. We deeply regret the loss of innocent civilian lives in Ukraine. The Cuban people have had and continue to have a very close relationship with the Ukrainian people. [See ‘Chernobyl disaster’ weblink below.]
History will hold the United States accountable for the consequences of an increasingly offensive military doctrine beyond NATO’s borders, which threatens international peace, security and stability.
Our concern has grown worse with NATO’s recent decision to activate, for the first time, its Response Force. Ignoring for decades the well-founded claims made by the Russian Federation concerning security guarantees, and assuming that Russia would remain defenseless in the face of a direct threat to its national security, were mistakes. Russia has the right to defend itself. Peace cannot be achieved by mounting sieges or encircling states.
The draft resolution on the situation in Ukraine, not adopted by the UN Security Council on February 25 [information below], which will be submitted to the General Assembly, was not intended as a genuine contribution to resolve the current crisis. On the contrary, it is an unbalanced text, which does not take into account the legitimate concerns of all parties involved. It also does not acknowledge the responsibility of those who instigated or took aggressive action that led to the escalation of this conflict.
We call for a serious, constructive and realistic diplomatic solution to the current crisis in Europe, via peaceful means, ensuring the security and sovereignty of all, as well as regional and international peace, stability and security.
Cuba rejects hypocrisy and double standards. It should be recalled that in 1999, the United States and NATO launched a major attack on Yugoslavia, a fragmented European country, in pursuit of geopolitical objectives, disregarding the UN Charter and with a high cost in human lives.
The United States and several of its allies have used force on many occasions. They have invaded sovereign states to bring about regime change and interfere in the internal affairs of other nations defending their territorial integrity and independence and which do not submit to U.S. interests of domination. They are also responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, which they label as “collateral damage”, millions of displaced persons and widespread destruction across our planet in their wars of plunder.
Havana, February 26, 2022
Related readings, compiled by A Socialist In Canada:
* Cuba’s medical care to the child victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, report by Prensa Latina, Aug 21, 2021 Some 26,000 Ukrainian children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster disaster have been treated in the resort town of Tarará, Cuba since 1990.
* Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro calls for dialogue in Ukraine crisis, rejects NATO’s ‘mockery’ of the 2015 Minsk Accord, Venezuela Analysis, Feb 28, 2022
* Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks to the high-level segment of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, March 1, 2022, published here on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs read the published remarks here in pdf format: Sergey Lavrov’s remarks, Mar 1, 2022 [The United Nations’ Conference on Disarmament meets annually in Geneva in multiple sessions. It reports to the General Assembly annually or more frequently as determined.]
* Russia is limiting military force in Ukraine but escalation still possible, say Chinese analysts, South China Morning Post, Mar 1, 2022
* Civilian deaths in Ukraine, information published on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, March 1, 2022 Full text: Between 24 February morning and midnight last night (Feb 28], our Office has recorded 536 civilian casualties in Ukraine. These include 136 civilians killed, of whom 13 were children, and 400 civilians injured, among them 26 children.
[Note that in its report, the Office of the UN High Commissioner (OHCHR) does not distinguish how many of the 136 deaths it reports since the beginning of the demilitarization operation by Russia were caused by Ukraine’s ongoing, eight-year war against the people of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass region. That war, aided and abetted by NATO, has cost the lives of an estimated 14,000 people. Here again, neither the OHCHR nor the ‘human rights’ agencies of the European Union do not detail who, exactly, is responsible for these deaths.]
* Security Council fails to adopt draft resolution on ending Ukraine crisis, as Russian Federation wields veto, report on website of UN Security Council, Feb 25, 2022
