War Speeches: Public Positions on the War of Ukraine and the rf for the Past Week

Civil Network OPORA developed an online tool "War Speeches" to track the official position and public discourse of the occupying state about the war against Ukraine and forecasts for the future aggressive plans.

The monitoring focused on statements and speeches delivered by officials from the occupying state, as well as on official documents of government institutions.

In addition to a detailed timeline of public positions presented on the website, we offer weekly analytical conclusions on the key changes in the public rhetoric of the parties to the military confrontation.

We are updating you about May 2-8, 2022.

Last week, the Russian leadership provoked a clamorous diplomatic scandal over the anti-Semitic remarks of russian Foreign Minister, sergei lavrov.

Leaders of russia, as evidenced by their statements, had to refute the information disseminated by Western media that on May 9, President vladimir putin would declare general mobilization and the war on Ukraine.

Russian politicians and diplomats have systematically threatened Western countries with a decisive response to "external" intervention in the war, in particular to the transfer of heavy weapons to Ukraine. They also shared a message that russia was forced to launch a "special military operation" because, otherwise, Ukraine would have attacked russia.

Instead, the Ukrainian authorities paid much attention to the introduction of sanctions against russia, in particular the embargo on the supply of Russian oil, as well as the strengthening of military assistance, the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal in Mariupol, the conditions for the resumption of the negotiation process.

Also, representatives of Ukraine reacted to anti-Semitic statements of Russian officials, including lavrov's statement about Hitler's Jewish origin, and attempts to insult President Zelensky with the phrase that Jews themselves are major anti-Semites.

In addition, it is also worth highlighting the normalization of relations between Ukraine and the President of Germany, which has evolved this week.

 

Russia in anticipation of May 9: anti-Semitic statements, denials of possible mobilization, accusations of Ukraine of preparing an attack on russia

 

The beginning of the month proved difficult for the russian foreign ministry. sergey lavrov's statement provoked a clamorous international scandal. However, instead of apologizing for his remarks and trying to get out of the awkward situation, the russian foreign ministry chose to escalate the conflict, resorting to new anti-Semitic remarks. To make the long story worse, the remarks were voiced shortly before Israel's Independence Day on May, 5.

On May, 1, in an interview with the Italian TV company “Mediaset”, the head of russian foreign agency, sergey lavrov said that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood (although this is a long refuted false information). He also pointed out that the most ardent antisemites are usually Jews. He expressed the opinion to explain how he perceived the fact that President Zelensky, being of Jewish origin, treated "denazification" of Ukraine as nonsensical, since it was declared as one of the tasks of the "special operation", while in fact it is the full-scale war of russia against Ukraine.

“He (Zelensky – OPORA) puts forward the argument: what kind of nazification are you talking about if he is a Jew. I may be wrong but Hitler also had Jewish blood. It doesn't mean anything at all. The wise Jewish people say that the most fierce anti-Semites, as a rule, are the Jews themselves. ‘There is a black sheep in every flock,’ as we say,” lavrov replied.

sergey lavrov's words caused negative reactions in Israel, Ukraine, Germany, and Italy. Thus, Israeli Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, called lavrov's words the meanest level of racism against Jews.

“Minister lavrov failed to hide the deep-rooted anti-Semitism of russian elites. His disgusting comments are offensive to President Zelensky, Ukraine, Israel, and the Jewish people. More broadly, his words demonstrate that modern russia is full of hatred for other peoples,”Kuleba tweeted.

Volodymyr Zelensky also reacted to lavrov’s words, noting that the russian Minister, with his comments, “accuses Jews for the crimes of the Nazis.”

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, saw a positive side in lavrov's statements. He ironically noted that thanks to the scandalous statements of the head of the russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the issue of supplying weapons to Ukraine from Israel is "almost settled".

In addition, in the German government, lavrov's words about Hitler's approval were called “absurd” propaganda, and Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, called them a mistake, and the phrase about Hitler was labelled as truly obscene.

However, after criticism, in particular from representatives of Israel, the russian foreign ministry decided to tunnel below rock bottom. They called the reaction of the head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs anti-historical, and repeatedly disseminated a propaganda narrative about neo-Nazis who are allegedly in power in Ukraine.

"Pay attention to the anti-historical statements of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, which in many ways explain the course of the current Israeli authorities in support of the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv," – says the statement of the russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which they distributed on May 3 in their Twitter account. 

However, this is not the end of the story. On May, 4, the spokeswoman of the russian foreign ministry, maria zakharova, spread a new message of russian propaganda – that Israeli mercenaries are fighting on the side of the “Azov” regiment in Mariupol.

maria zakharova's words met an ironic response from Mykhailo Podoliak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a member of the Negotiating Group of Ukraine with russia.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the russian federation stated that Israeli mercenaries are fighting alongside the ‘Azov’ Nazis. In April, 3.5 tons of cocaine smuggled into russia was arrested in Estonia. It seems that the shortage of cocaine has forced the Foreign Ministry employees to switch to some things heavier,”Podoliak wrote on Twitter.

However, in russia, they eventually decided to smooth the conflict and apologize, but not in public. Probably, it is not very classy for russia to openly admit their mistakes.

putin had to apologize for lavrov's words. This happened during his telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister, Bennett Naftali. The russian president called to congratulate Israel on Independence Day. It has been stated on the website of the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel but not on the kremlin website, as it has no information about the fact of apology, although there is a mention of the call.

“The Prime Minister accepted President putin's apology for lavrov's words and thanked him for clarifying the president's attitude to the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” according to the report on the results of the negotiations available on the website of the Prime Minister's Office.

This week will be kept in memory not only for the antisemitic statements but also for the attempts of russian politicians to reassure russians that no mobilization will be declared by vladimir putin on May 9.

The shoes of "Oleksii Arestovych," who is purportedly considered as having a soothing effect on Ukrainian society, have been tried by putin's press secretary, dmitriy peskov, and the speaker of the State Duma of russia, viacheslav volodin.

The first to reassure russian society was peskov. On May, 4, he commented on information actively disseminated in foreign media that on May, 9 putin could declare war on Ukraine and announce general mobilization. The press secretary of the rf president called such words a nonsense.

The next day, the baton was caught by viacheslav volodin who also denied the possibility of mobilization in russia. "No. No. I will tell you this on and off the record,” the politician said.

As for russia's direct war against Ukraine, russian politicians continued their hysteria over the supply of weapons to Ukraine as a policy of restraint and weakening of russia.

In this regard, viacheslav volodin was the most notable among russian politicians. This time, he reached the laurels of the "popularity" of Lukashenko, who knows "where the attack on Belarus was being prepared from."

Reminder: On March, 11, in moscow, Lukashenko justified russian aggression by saying that if russian troops had not attacked Ukraine from the territory of Belarus, Ukrainian missiles would have “struck Gomel and Mozyr.” Lukashenko was even ready to show some “maps with Ukraine's preparations to attack on Belarus.” In the end, he never showed anything, but he added to the collection of memes.

What about volodin? He developed the fantasies of Lukashenko a little further and commented to the russian media that the West intentionally pumped Ukraine with weapons to deter the russian federation. In addition, according to volodin, Ukraine planned to attack russia, so the "special military operation" was a proactive act in advance. “Had it not been for the decisions taken by president putin, military actions would have been carried out on the territory of our country. He managed to prevent an attack on russia,”  volodin said.

In addition, in another interview, volodin threatened Ukraine's allies to respond decisively to "external" intervention in the war.

Germany, whose parliament supported the joint initiative of the coalition and the opposition to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine a few months before, was particularly affected by this.

On April, 28, with 586 votes, the Bundestag called on the German government to “continue and, if possible, accelerate the supply of Ukraine with the necessary equipment and, at the same time, expand the transfer of heavy and complex armament systems to this country within the framework of a circular exchange.”

“The leaders of a number of European states, led by Germany, could engage their people in major problems. By supplying arms to Ukraine, they become a party to the conflict, ” volodin commented on the German parliament's decision.

putin is also concerned about Western weapons, as he shares propaganda narratives that Ukraine is allegedly shelling civilians in Donbas, and the West is not responding to this in any way.

One may wonder, how you can react to something existing on the screens of russian television only? “The West could help to stop these atrocities by exerting an appropriate influence on the Kyiv authorities, as well as by stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine,” putin believes.

Oil Embargo, Azovstal, Restoration of Territorial Integrity: What Ukrainian Politicians Talked About

Unlike the russian authorities busy promoting new propaganda concepts, Ukrainian officials paid attention to a wide range of practical problems. One of the highly discussed topics was Ukraine's advocacy for the introduction of the EU oil embargo and other sanctions against russia.

this was in focus of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted in his address that Ukraine continued to insist on strengthening sanctions against russia. “The West should impose an embargo on russian oil, as well as disconnect russian banks from the global financial system,” the President said.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, called on the international community to strengthen russia's isolation in order to weaken their military potential.

"We call on the governments of all states of the world to provide a decisive answer to the rf: to isolate it even more, to impose an embargo on russian oil and gas, which will deprive the russian war machine of financial resources, to increase military, financial and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, whose people now heroically oppose the russian evil," Kuleba said.

According to Denys Shmyhal, the supply of weapons to Ukraine should take place in parallel with the strengthening of sanctions against russia. "Ukraine needs to accelerate the supply of various types of weapons from partner countries, because Ukrainian lives are dependent on them, as well as further success in the fight against the aggressor," the official believes.

In the context of increased international support, for Ukraine it was significant to have a telephone conversation between Volodymyr Zelensky and the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Franz-Walter Steinmeier, which indicates the normalization of relations between the two politicians. Subsequently, Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted that he had had a “good, constructive, and a very important conversation”. This was also confirmed in Steinmeier's office where they said that all “frustrations from the past have been resolved”.

“I thanked for the powerful support to Ukraine. We expect it to be strengthened. Germany's leading position is important in countering russia's aggression. I updated on the situation on the front, and about the critical state of play in Mariupol,”the President wrote on Twitter.

In their statements, Ukrainian officials paid much attention to the evacuation of citizens from Mariupol, in particular, from the premises of the Azovstal plant, and to the situation in the destroyed city. 

On May, 7, President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, noted that the first stage of the evacuation of people from Azovstal was fully completed. As a result, 300 civilians – women and children – were rescued.

The President also noted that the next stage covers the evacuation of the wounded, medics, and all Ukrainian military personnel holding positions at the plant. He added, however, that this would only be possible if the russians keep their promises.

Reminder: the day before, President Zelensky repeatedly reminded that Ukraine would withdraw from the negotiations if russia destroys Ukrainian military and civilians at Azovstal in Mariupol.

According to the President, in order to unblock the talks, russia needs to withdraw its troops to the positions as of February, 24. This is the opinion of Zelenskyi he expressed during his address to the experts of the Royal Institute of International Relations Chatham House.

Also this week, Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted that Ukraine will never agree to a frozen conflict in confrontation with russia. Moreover, Ukraine's goal is to restore territorial integrity within the borders recognized by the world community (borders as of 1991 – OPORA).

“Today, the top priority is the maximum expulsion of russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, but the overall goal is to restore the territorial integrity of our state within internationally recognized borders, because this is what all Ukrainians want,” the President believes.