Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow, April 3, 2025
Table of Contents
- Meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and the Alliance of Sahel States
- Sergey Lavrov to attend the opening ceremony of the TASS exhibition “Their Immortal Heroism” dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War
- Presentation of the Kaluga Region
- Sergey Lavrov to take part in CIS Foreign Ministers Council Meeting
- Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus
- Situation regarding the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure
- Ukraine crisis update
- Update on Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
- Inconsistencies in Kiev’s and West’s versions of spring 2022 incident in Bucha
- The silence of the lambs: Why Europe preferred to forget about the Nord Stream explosions
- Human rights crisis in the Baltic States
- Russia’s provision of humanitarian aid to Myanmar
- Presentation of a book on the real causes of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Italy
- New facts about Nazi criminals in Canada
- The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava and completion of the liberation of Hungary from German invaders during the Great Patriotic War
- Fine Dining: Stories of Food in Ancient China exhibition to open in Moscow
- Statements by Vladimir Zelensky
- The unfriendly actions taken by Moldovan authorities
- The French court ruling against Marine Le Pen
- Moldova’s expulsion of Russian diplomats
- Serbia-EU cooperation
- The EU’s interference in Serbia's internal affairs
- Palestinian-Israeli conflict settlement
- The EU boosting its influence in Central Asia
- US sanctions against Venezuela
- Statements by President of Finland
- Insinuations by Polish authorities
- The Iranian nuclear programme
- Resolving the INP situation
- Russian-Chinese relations
- Kirill Molchanov’s arrest
- The new Black Sea Initiative
- Discriminatory approached by German authorities
- Events involving the Embassy of Iceland in Moscow
- Comments by the President of Serbia on the Red Army’s role in the liberation of Yugoslavia
Meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and the Alliance of Sahel States
The first meeting between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the new Russia-the Alliance of Sahel States format is being prepared and will start soon. The ministers will discuss the development of multifaceted relations between Russia and the Alliance, including closer political dialogue and sectoral interaction.
We reaffirm our striving to effectively assist the Alliance in the development of an independent political line and a new regional security architecture with reliance on their own forces and based on the African solutions to African problems principle.
The event will be held in several formats in Moscow today: a joint meeting and bilateral meetings, to be followed by a news conference. You can follow their progress and watch live broadcasts on the Foreign Ministry’s website and official accounts in the social media.
On April 8, the Foreign Ministry will host a presentation of a TASS photo exhibition, “Their Immortal Heroism,” dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and based on the news agency’s photo archives. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will deliver opening remarks. The ceremony will be attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Moscow, the academic community, NGOs and media outlets.
The exhibition covers the key events of the past few months of the Great Patriotic War, including archival reports from the daily Bulletin of Frontline News and the Bulleting of Allied News, as well as photographs taken by the agency’s photojournalists and the TASS Windows posters.
It is notable that this exhibition is not a fleeting event but part of a large marathon that will travel among our embassies abroad. It is a large project that will be demonstrated at various venues and online.
Presentation of the Kaluga Region
On April 8, the Cultural Centre of GlavUpDK under the Foreign Ministry will host a presentation of the investment, economic, cultural and tourist potential of the Kaluga Region. The agenda includes an exposition of the region’s social and economic achievements and its unique cultural and historical heritage.
Invitations have been sent to the heads of diplomatic missions, businesses and Russian and international media.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kaluga Region Governor Vladislav Shapsha are expected to make statements at the event.
Sergey Lavrov to take part in CIS Foreign Ministers Council Meeting
On April 11, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in this year’s first meeting of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council in Almaty.
The foreign ministers are expected to exchange views on the latest international and regional developments and discuss priorities in terms of promoting integration within the CIS in 2025.
They will pay special attention to preparing events marking 80 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War in CIS member states, as well as other matters on the cultural and humanitarian cooperation agenda, along with efforts to reinforce border security.
The ministers will also sum up the results of the 2024 Plan for Multi-Level Foreign Ministry Consultations within the CIS, as well as the Programme of Action for enabling the CIS foreign ministries to expand their partnership ties.
Some of the outcome documents resulting from this meeting will be forwarded to the CIS heads of state and government for approval. This event will have a busy agenda.
Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus
I would like to repeat something that we already mentioned yesterday. On April 2, 2025, we marked the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus. This date offers us a marvellous occasion for celebrating the progress and positive momentum we have achieved in promoting integration between our two countries as they build the Union State. It stands as a symbol of the unbreakable friendship and the unbending will of our brotherly nations to achieve unity.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and other Russian officials exchanged messages of greetings with their Belarusian counterparts on this occasion.
Celebrations marking the Day of Unity have been taking place across Russia and Belarus, with the main festivities held, as usual, on April 2, 2025, in our respective capitals, with the performance of the Pathetique Memory Book by the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia’s new stage, and a gala evening in Minsk, which included performances by the Pyatnitssky State Academic Russian Folk Choir, and the Penza Region Governor’s Symphonic Capella. President of Russia Vladimir Putin sent a message of greetings to the participants in these celebrations. First Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federal Assembly’s State Duma, Ivan Melnikov, presented this message in Moscow, while Viktoria Abramchenko, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, performed this task in Minsk.
A Foreign Ministry representative presented a detailed insight into the history of this holiday and our achievements in promoting integration within the Union State in his remarks at the reception held on March 31, 2025, at the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation. There was also a concert during the event, bringing together both famous folk bands and prominent performers, as well as talented young bands from Russia and Belarus. One of the performers came from Slovakia.
On behalf of the Foreign Ministry, and on behalf of all of us, of course, including in my personal capacity, I would like to offer our heartfelt greetings to all the people of Russia and Belarus and congratulate them on this momentous occasion.
We live within the same Union State and wish it steady development, stronger sovereignty and a bigger weight in international affairs, along with prosperity and every success in delivering on its plans. We also wish its people good health, happiness and well-being, to believe in themselves and their potential. After all, we can overcome all the challenges and reach new heights as long as we stick together. Unity offers us a path to becoming stronger, succeeding and achieving Victory!
Situation regarding the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure
Now, let’s address a situation that may seem obvious to us but remains not so obvious to many of the Western countries. I am referring to the ongoing developments surrounding the Ukrainian crisis.
Not long ago, the Kiev regime was determined to win and defeat Russia at any cost, and was devising various strategies to achieve it. Now, however, their focus has shifted, not towards getting the upper hand or even holding their ground, but towards disrupting the nascent Russian-American dialogue. They continue to employ openly terrorist tactics, launching daily attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure.
Since March 18, 2025 – the date when Russia and the United States agreed on a mutual moratorium on attacks against energy infrastructure, a moratorium that the Kiev regime is not observing – we have witnessed a series of targeted attacks on Russia’s energy facilities. Despite Ukraine’s claims of alleged “military necessity,” these attacks are clearly provocative and demonstrative in nature.
The facts are undeniable: over 30 attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure have been recorded during this period, targeting the Belgorod, Bryansk, Zaporozhye, Kursk, and Kherson regions, as well as the Krasnodar Territory. Notably, all these strikes were carried out using Western-supplied weapons, which are being used to conduct terrorist attacks against our civilian infrastructure.
I’ll provide a few examples to give a clear picture to those who are still under any illusions:
– On March 31, 2025, at 10:08, a Ukrainian UAV attack – including at least four munition drops – targeted a 35 kV electrical substation in Novogoryevka (State Unitary Enterprise Tavria-Energo) in the Zaporozhye Region. As a result, power supply was disrupted for residential consumers in two villages of the Tokmakovsky District.
– On March 31, at 11:38, a Ukrainian drone strike targeted a transformer substation in the town of Smorodino, Belgorod Region, causing the disconnection of a 10 kV high-voltage line. As a result, more than 1,200 households in the Grayvoronsky District lost power.
– On April 2, Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a drone strike on the Svatovo gas distribution station in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
The Kiev regime, sensing its impending collapse, is desperately attempting to provoke an escalation and drag its British and European patrons into a direct military confrontation with Russia.
At the same time, it is clear that these attacks hold insignificant military value. As the Russian Defence Ministry emphasises, all targeted facilities are well-protected, any damage is swiftly repaired, and there is no threat to the civilian population. But that is precisely the point – not to inflict significant damage (which is virtually impossible given the current state of the Ukrainian Armed Forces), but to create an information pretext for another wave of hysteria in Western media and to undermine the ongoing dialogue between Moscow and Washington.
The actions of the Kiev regime not only constitute war crimes but also represent a deliberate effort to sabotage any peace initiatives.
Over the past three years, every possible avenue has been explored. I won’t dwell on the Minsk agreements, which both the Kiev regime and its Western patrons never intended to comply with, playing around with us for seven years. But even in the last three years, we tried to use any opportunity, including direct negotiations with representatives from Bankova Street (even though the situation seemed clear at the time, we used that chance). These talks, I remind you, went through several rounds. Moscow has also repeatedly emphasised that a political and diplomatic resolution remains our priority. The Russian Federation consistently reminded that it was the Kiev regime that had imposed a ban on negotiations with our country. Every option had been explored. Then, all of a sudden, as if on cue, the Western sponsors stopped insisting that a solution to this crisis could only be reached “on the battlefield.” When they realised that their bet on the military victory of the Kiev regime fell through, they changed their tune and began speaking of peace and negotiations. However, the Kiev regime did everything in its power to derail these efforts from the very start. Even the assurances given by Vladimir Zelensky that they would honour the moratorium were broken on the very same day.
Russia will not give in to provocations, but the responsibility for the potential consequences of this destructive policy will rest entirely with Bankova Street and their handlers, who continue to connive at the most reckless and criminal actions of the Vladimir Zelensky regime.
As we have repeatedly noted, the Kiev regime continues to attack the energy infrastructure of our country contrary to its obligations. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, on March 26-31, 2025, artillery systems and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit facilities of Rosseti Centre in the Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk regions, as well as an electric substation in the Zaporozhye Region, a gas reservoir in Glebovskoye, the Republic of Crimea, the Saratov Refinery and others. These facilities include a gas measuring station in Sudzha that was destroyed completely by a Ukrainian missile attack on March 28, 2025. We provide comprehensive and detailed facts proving that the Kiev regime is torpedoing a moratorium on strikes against the energy and civilian infrastructure, to which it has publicly agreed.
We would like to note once again that the Kiev regime’s ongoing terrorist attacks against the Russian energy sector merely confirm its inability to negotiate and reach agreements. Bankova Street lacks the political will to make peace. They still want to escalate the conflict, and they are ready to stage any provocations to thwart efforts to completely resolve the Ukraine crisis.
Against the backdrop of resumed dialogue between Moscow and Washington, the Kiev regime, supported by “European partners,” does not scale down intensive strikes against civilian facilities on Russian territories, and the number of attacks on the civilian population does not abate either. On March 24-30, 2025, these attacks impacted 118 civilians. Of this number, 14 were killed and 104 more injured, including three minors. Most civilian casualties were recorded in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as well as the Kherson Region.
On March 31, 2025, Ukrainian militants deliberately targeted a drone strike on a vehicle carrying a television crew in Gorlovka, the Donetsk People’s Republic, and injured a driver and a cameraman from the Donetsk State Television and Radio Company who were fulfilling an editorial assignment.
Eight civilians were subjected to a missile strike in Lisichansk, the Donetsk People’s Republic. A 14-year-old boy was injured when a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) shelled the town of Mikhailovka. A female paramedic and an ambulance driver were injured during a drone strike in the village of Petrovka.
A municipal bus driver was killed during a drone strike in Gorlovka, the Donetsk People’s Republic. A 13-year-old boy and four other civilians were injured during a cluster bomb strike in Gorlovka. In the morning of April 1, 2025, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cynically attacked a municipal bus with passengers on Victory Square in central Gorlovka and injured 16 people.
An 86-year-old woman was killed after a drone slammed into a home in the village of Verkhnyaya Krinitsa in the Zaporozhye Region.
An ambulance driver was injured in the village of Bessonovka in the Belgorod Region.
In the early hours of April 2, 2025, the Rostov Region was attacked from the air; buildings were damaged in Taganrog, and one person was injured.
Retreating Ukrainian Nazis are venting their powerless rage on residents of the Kursk Region, and they are actively hunting these people with drones, while the civilians are trying to obtain food and water. We have recorded new facts of deliberately planting land mines near local communities.
Recently we learned that Ukrainian militants in Sudzha offered local residents bread to make impressive photo reports, and then killed them in cold blood. The bodies of women shot point-blank are found in wells, gardens, houses, and cars.
The Ukrainian Nazis are making money on this. One might think that it is impossible to stoop any lower. But it turns out there is way to go. They organise online auctions to sell things stolen from civilians in the Kursk Region. Stolen and pilfered goods are sold at such auctions. While looting in the Russian region, the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stopped at nothing.
For a month and a half, Ukrainian militants did not allow residents of Kazachya Loknya, Kursk Region, to bury their executed relatives and neighbours. The bodies lay in the streets decomposing until it was announced that Western journalists had arrived in the village. Then the remains were removed with shovels.
Another piece of evidence proving that foreign mercenaries are also fighting in the Kursk border area was the body of a bandit wearing a uniform jacket with the emblem of the British naval school Gordonstoun Sail Training, discovered in the Guyevo village. A monstrous advertisement for this institution. As a rule, such insignia are given to graduates of this educational institution, among whom are the British Prince Philip and King Charles III.
Russian law enforcement agencies are carefully collecting the testimonies on the monstrous crimes committed by the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and foreign mercenaries from people in the liberated territories. Where are all these Western non-governmental organisations that made fuss showing photographs of boys and girls whose human rights are not respected in some remote regions of the world? Where are the Western European NGOs? Where are they? This is the continent we all share and where neo-Nazis treat people so monstrously. They are silent. But our law enforcement agencies continue their work.
Russian courts continue to pass sentences to Ukrainian neo-Nazis and mercenaries for their military crimes. For example, 23 bandits (12 in presence) of the Azov terrorist organisation, banned in Russia, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 13 to 24 years; and six militants of the 129th separate territorial defence brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were convicted for committing acts of terror in the Kursk Region: Sergey Blashchenko and Sergey Bokhonko (15 years in prison), Nikolay Kononenko, Artur Volkov and Maxim Khadeyev (14 years), as well as Vitaly Chupin (13 years).
Good Owen, Arthur Tremoulet and Nikoloz Churadze, mercenaries from Great Britain, France and Georgia, who fought on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces, were sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison each. R.E. Vardaro, a soldier of fortune from the United States, was sentenced to seven years in prison. All of them are on the international wanted list. The case against the legionary from Brazil N. Cha has been sent to court. This work will continue.
For their part, the British and the EU members are not abandoning their attempts to consolidate Europe in support of Ukraine. The regular European summit held in Paris on March 27 involving the countries that have joined the “coalition of the willing” was devoted to this objective. It was established by London a month ago to form a certain “peacekeeping force” to be sent to Ukraine. But, to all appearances, this idea has reached a dead end.
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the establishment of a “coalition of action for a lasting and durable peace” that aims to bring together those who demonstrate a desire for unity in building peace through strength. The question arises: What will this “coalition of the willing” and “for peace through strength” do? The impression is that these are the names of some dubious social networking groups for people with an unbalanced psyche. Clearly, neither the “coalition of the willing” nor the “coalition for peace through strength” have anything to do with peace. They are proliferating subgroups of the “war party” that was so intent on, as they put it, inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia. Now, realising that they have failed in this venture, the EU members are trying to create a semblance of action and are spawning respective entities.
It is reported that the German Parliament has developed a legal framework for building up military aid to Kiev in 2025 by 3 billion euros (up to 7 billion). My question for Berlin is: Are you aware of the challenges facing the German economy? How many companies, business representatives and members of financial circles have fled Germany for North America or Asia in order to avoid the economic collapse? Meanwhile you continue to sponsor the terrorist and corrupt Kiev regime and inject more money into it. Paris plans to supply Ukraine with an additional batch of French Mirage 2000-5F jet fighters and provide Kiev with another package of military aid worth 2 billion euros, including missiles for Mirage jet fighters, Mistral transportable air defence systems, armoured vehicles, wheeled tanks, and more. Norwegian officials have confirmed their plans to finance the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with $8 billion in 2025. There is a saying, “if we die anyway, we will die to music.” I believe this money will pay exactly for the music to which the European Union is dying in a well-orchestrated manner. Sweden is also taking cues from its Scandinavian neighbours as it has announced the biggest since 2022 package of military aid for Ukraine worth $1.6 billion.
At the summit in Paris I mentioned, participants discussed the France-UK initiative to deploy so-called “reassurance forces” rather than peacekeeping corps once truce is declared. It appears that this measure is only supposed to confuse the citizens of the EU and Great Britain completely as they no longer understand who stood where, who plays what and who supports whom, who has what names and performs what functions. Neither will these forces be deployed along the contact line nor will they substitute for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Their job is to shield the strategic locations agreed upon with Ukrainians — for example, Odessa or Lvov. This was openly stated in Paris and London. It appears that the Europeans have already set their eyes on these cities and are hatching their own plans with respect to them. By the way, containing potential Russian aggression is named as one of the tasks for these forces. This resembles the military intervention by the Triple Entente during the Civil War in our country in 1917-1922. But it is alright. We know history quite well.
Even Ukraine’s ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets could not turn a blind eye to rampaging corruption and arbitrary conduct by draft centres. In his report, he admitted the mass and systemic nature of human rights violations and abuse of power. He mentions evidence of using force, weapons and special devices against draftees, as well as forceful signing of documents, prevention of access to legal aid for these victims of so-called “basification”, a new term that refers to putting of caught men on buses against their will. Now, according to accounts available online, attorneys have been replaced by plain mobsters who charge thousands of dollars for the service of “rescuing” draftees. And this is how the billions provided by the European Union will be spent. This is exactly how.
Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. The parasites of the Kiev regime continue to drink the blood of ordinary Ukrainians and roll in clover at their expense and at the expense of the EU.
These facts once again confirm the relevance of the special military operation that seeks to denazify and demilitarise Ukraine and eliminate the threats coming from Ukrainian territory. As the Russian leadership has stated many times, all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved by all means.
Look at the mayhem involving the efforts to destroy freedom of religion and even Christianity and Orthodox Christianity. Last week, the fight for the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra’s affiliation, and property and relics on its grounds resumed with a vengeance of diabolical proportions.
On March 5, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture (if we can still call it that) acted upon an executive order and created a commission. What for? Someone might think for protecting the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, or for at least for maintaining some semblance of resuming a dialogue among the people who used to share one faith in Ukraine, but no. In the best or worst (take your pick) of Bulgakovian traditions, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture used this executive order to create a commission “to inventory and inspect the holy relics in the Near Caves.” Remember what Zelensky’s crusade to settle all Ukraine’s problems began with? What did they call it? Was it “decommunisation?” No, the communists couldn’t even think of such a name a hundred years ago. Much was done the wrong way. We admit it openly and candidly. But no one, not even the most deranged among them, could have thought of such a thing. The commission “to verify the historical and scientific value of the remains of the saints” (this is a direct quote) included a doctor of veterinary sciences and head of the Department of Vertebrate Biomorphology of the National University of Bioresources and Nature Management of Ukraine Oleg Melnik, who has received multiple “awards” by the schismatics from the “Kiev Patriarchate” and the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.” Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Mikhail Bulgakov, and, possibly, Mikhail Zoshchenko, or maybe even Vasily Shukshin would be envious of such stories. The “experts” who joined him in this sacrilegious endeavour include Head of the Human Anatomy Department of Odessa Medical University Yelena Appelhans, professor of the anatomy department of Vinnitsa University Yury Guminsky, and head of the military surgery department of Ukrainian Military Medical Academy Sergey Korol. Everyone should know the names of their anti-heroes.
According to this document, the commission should, until May 30, check “the presence of the saints’ remains in the tombs of the Near and Far caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra national reserve and to assess their historical and scientific value. Should items falling under the category of cultural values be identified, they will be put on special lists for a follow-up report. The commission began its “work” in the morning of March 28, when commission members accompanied by law enforcement officers arrived on the grounds of the Near Caves in order to open the reliquaries, count them, and take samples for a DNA analysis. What about Zelensky’s “decommunisation?” I can tell it’s in full swing. In order to carry out similar actions, employees of the Ministry of Culture, or rather the Ministry of Anti-Culture, entered the Far Caves. The reserve employees came equipped with lock cutters. It’s hard to tell where this “work” is at now, since the Ukrainian Ministry of Anti-Culture has classified all information about it, marking it as “restricted.” What kind of “cultural assets” are they hiding from their own people? What they are hiding is not even that, but something that every right-minded person would call blasphemy.
In fact, the Ministry of Anti-Culture of Ukraine is leading the process of systematic looting and destruction of values that are of particular importance for the Orthodox and Christian world. The Zelensky-led started shipping the relics out from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra three years ago to unknown destinations in the Western countries.
In doing so, the Kiev regime lets everyone know that under the neo-Nazi dictatorship in the country, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has fallen under the steamroller of reprisals, is deprived even of the right to its own relics. Who has been robbed this time? This time Vladimir Zelensky is picking more than the pockets of the Ukrainian people. They are now stealing the Ukrainians’ souls.
This blasphemy should not go unnoticed by the international community.
The relics of the saints are not museum pieces and certainly not an object for experiments, which is obvious. Many constructive forces abroad also adhere to this point of view. US lawyer Robert Amsterdam publicly decried the Zelensky regime’s actions saying that “the Ukrainian government planned and organised a premeditated campaign to eradicate the 1,000-year-old majority church in Ukraine.” He noted that the crackdown organised by the Ukrainian authorities was a direct violation of Ukrainian legislation and international law, and represents “a concerning throwback to Soviet-era legal procedures.” Once again, my question is: how is Zelensky doing with “decommunisation?”
Turning to international legal documents, the 1972 UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage contains the obligation of countries to “identify, protect, conserve, present and rehabilitate the cultural and natural heritage.” No “deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage action should be taken.” As is known, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Even in the secular understanding of this agenda there are corresponding “protection certificates” to prevent those who may be driven by a variety of motives to not become absolutely dehumanised.
The moral assessment of these actions has already been provided and it is not in favour of those who are trying every trick in the book to destroy canonical Orthodoxy’s cultural and religious heritage.
Inconsistencies in Kiev’s and West’s versions of spring 2022 incident in Bucha
These days mark the third anniversary of the heinous provocation staged by Vladimir Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime and its masters with a view to accusing Russia of “war crimes” against civilians residing in Bucha, a suburb of Ukraine’s capital.
We have repeatedly said, with facts in hands, that the Bucha massacre was a cynical show staged by the West and the Kiev regime. However, the Bankovaya Street and its supervisors keep on trying to pin the responsibility for their bloody show on Russia. They are doing everything possible to defame our country in the global information space. Yet, I think this not what matters most for them. Their top priority is to throw a bone to those whom they keep dragging into the “bloody meat grinders,” the people who are being forcefully mobilised in Ukraine. This show is for them.
In 1944, the Nazis also accused Russia of the “crimes” against civilians after they retreated from Nemmersdorf which historian subsequently recognised as a deliberate distortion of facts to demonise Soviet soldiers. Those who continue to blame the Russian army in alleged crimes in Bucha are following the same Nazi templates.
In the past three years, nobody has given Russia the list of “Bucha victims” although we have sent numerous requests to various international bodies asking for identification of the bodies that were shown to the entire world.
Thus, since 2022, we addressed various UN agencies a number of times with a request to make the Ukrainian side submit the list. On September 22, during a UNSC meeting, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed a respective request to the UN Secretary-General. Subsequently, the Russian foreign minister frequently reminded Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres about his request during private meetings, telephone conversations, and publicly.
In September 2024, a request on investigating the circumstances of the Bucha provocation by the Investigative Committee jointly with the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation was submitted to the UN by Russia’s Permanent Mission in New York. Following that, we repeatedly called on the UN Secretariat to speed up the reply to our request. However, all our requests have so far remained unanswered.
Let us see how we can help the UN people and all right-minded individuals understand what happened there and reveal inconsistencies of that egregious show.
1. How did “the bodies of people allegedly killed in late February and early March” lie untouched on Yablonskaya Street until early April?
The Kiev regime’s main version is that the “Russian military” carried out the alleged mass shootings of civilians in the first days after the town was seized. Let me remind you that Bucha was partially occupied by the Russian army in late February 2022; some areas came under control of the Russian Armed Forces in early March. All the so-called “video testimonies” transmitted by Western agencies are dated April 2022.
The corpses have no visible signs of decomposition or damage caused by animals. The bodies could not have possibly made it in this condition on the streets during the warm spring of 2022.
2. When, where and who really killed the “Bucha victims”?
Modern criminology and forensic tools make it possible to use indirect signs to establish with high degree of accuracy the time of death. Moreover, the scene of the murder can be determined by so-called criminological artefacts such as residues of substances under fingernails, how worn out the clothes are, and molecular traces.
There is no information in public space about where and when the people who the Kiev regime claims to be the “Bucha victims” were killed. It is groundlessly stated that they were “shot by the Russian military.” That is all. There is nothing else to back up this horrendous theory.
3. This brings up the next question: Where from and for what purpose were the dead bodies brought there?
If they died or were killed by the Kiev regime gunmen earlier, where were they kept all that time? A postmortem examination would have made it possible to establish whether the bodies of the “victims” were subjected to freezing or were brought to the town left by the Russian army a few hours later. This is also indicated by the absence of traces of blood under the corpses.
4. Why did it take two to three days for the first “evidence” to appear after the reports about the Russian army’s withdrawal?
The Russian army withdrew from Bucha on March 30, 2022 (some units on March 31). On the same day, the mayor of Bucha, Anatoly Fedoruk, made a statement from the town itself. Some time later, People’s Deputy Zhan Belenyuk made a statement from the town. If any of them had seen dead bodies on the central Yablonskaya Street, the images of which were later carried by the Western press, they would hardly have been silent about this fact.
As a reminder, it was not until April 1-2, 2022, that the first reports of the “shocking war crimes” emerged. The answer is clear. None of what the Western press and television showed was there. Otherwise, those among the town officials who commented after the Russian armed forces had left the settlement would have described it in every possible way, shedding tears. By the way, they would probably have been right, since we are talking about their fellow citizens, their compatriots, people they knew. Since they live in this locality, they should have known these people. They would have quoted reports from relatives of these people, known their names, and talked about their histories. None of that was done. Neither during the recording of the video messages by Bucha Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk, nor afterwards, did they even mention any of the abovementioned facts.
5. What has the National Police been doing in the city since the morning of April 2?
According to official statements, the national police started to “cleanse the city of saboteurs and Russian accomplices” in Bucha, a fact that the authorities later kept silent about.
6. Why were many victims wearing white cuffbands or armbands?
In March 2022, many residents of the Kiev region who welcomed the Russian army or wanted to demonstrate their peaceful intentions wore white armbands. The fact that many of those killed in Bucha wore white sleevebands (some had their hands tied behind their backs) suggests that they could have been “massacred” by the Ukrainian armed forces after they entered Bucha. Because of the rapid withdrawal of Russian troops, many did not have time to remove them, after which the territorial defence units and the national police simply shot these people for their cooperation with Russia or simply for their desire for peace.
7. Why did they take and circulate blatantly staged photos on social media?
Many of the “victims” later turned out to be alive; photographs of their bodies camouflaged as corpses were circulated in the early days of the hysteria.
8. Why was there no assessment of the possibility that at least a number of bodies were victims of shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces during the withdrawal of Russian troops from the city?
This theory did not fit into the carefully constructed narrative, and it is not being considered, although even the photographs that have been circulated show craters from artillery shells fired by the Kiev regime. This, again, does not fit into the Western theory.
9. The Russian military opened humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians from Bucha, which has been proved by numerous testimonies. Why hadn’t the “potential victims” used that opportunity if they sensed danger?
10. Foreign mercenaries, in particular, Czech citizen Filip Siman, who was sentenced to a prison term for looting, admitted that he and his crime partners, under the supervision of the Ukrainian army, took part in crimes against civilians in March and April 2022. Why was not his testimony accepted as proof that the Ukrainian army was involved in the Bucha massacre, including crimes committed by proxies?
Everything we will be shown now is just another performance orchestrated to provide false information to those Ukrainian citizens who continue to believe the Kiev regime. This is being done to brainwash EU citizens into giving the last billions of euros for aid to the Kiev regime. This is what all these shows are for. The Bucha massacre was used back then to derail the peace agreements and talks and to turn the region into a slaughterhouse. The goal is the same now, that is, to thwart the nascent peace contacts and to do everything possible to justify the new multibillion allocations to the Kiev regime.
The silence of the lambs: Why Europe preferred to forget about the Nord Stream explosions
The West has crafty methods of both inflaming information scandals and engaging in “strategic silence” in what looks like similar situations, such as subversive operations and terrorist attacks. The Bucha massacre is an absolutely false story, while the Nord Stream explosions are a hard fact.
The terrorist attack on a critical European energy infrastructure took place two and a half years ago. Three years ago, President Joe Biden said the US would “bring an end” to that civilian energy infrastructure project.
Do you think the investigation into the latter attack has produced any result? None at all. There’s deafening silence. At the same time, they are playing up the spectacle of the Bucha massacre.
I’d like to remind you about the sequence of the events:
- On the night of September 26, 2022, a gas pressure drop was registered on one of the two lines of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Notifications were sent out to the coastal services of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. It was established that the accident took place southeast of the island of Bornholm in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone. Later that day, pressure dropped on the other line of the Nord Stream pipeline. Swiss seismologists registered two explosions in the area of the pipelines on September 26.
The Danish Energy Agency announced that a large amount of gas escaped into the sea.The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency later reported that over 5.8 million tonnes of harmful substances were released into the air due to the act of sabotage.
- On September 28, 2022,the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia initiated proceedings into the act of international terrorism (Part 1 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Russia).
- On September 30, 2022, President Vladimir Putin stated that the explosion was an act of subversion aimed at the destruction of Europe’s entire energy infrastructure.
- Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced their intention to conduct independent investigations into the explosions, but refused to involve Russia in them.
- In the middle of October 2022, the European media published the first underwater photographs of the damaged pipeline. A month after the explosions, experts from Gazprom and Nord Stream 2 AG were allowed to inspect the explosion site.
- On November 18, 2022,the relevant Swedish authorities confirmed that it was an act of sabotage. They found traces of explosives at the site.
- On February 8, 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in his article, citing a source, that the explosives were planted on the gas pipelines by a US Navy dive team during the NATO BALTOPS 22 exercise in June 2022, with cooperative assistance from the Norwegian Navy. According to Hersh, the decision on this operation was made by US President Joe Biden following nine months of discussions with representatives of the administration responsible for national security issues. The European Commission’s press office dismissed Hersh’s findings as “speculation” and refused to comment. John Kirby, who was White House National Security Communications Advisor at that time, described Hersh’s article as a “completely false story” with “no truth to it,” denying US involvement in the explosions. There was no comment as to what John Kirby did with Joe Biden’s statement on the destruction of this civilian infrastructure facility.
- On February 21, 2023, Russia called a UN Security Council briefing on Nord Stream pipeline attacks. However, the Russia-sponsored draft resolution calling for an UN-led inquiry into the attacks, was not adopted. It was blocked by the Western representatives.
- On March 1-2, 2023, the G20 Foreign Ministers met in India, where Russia and China sought to include a paragraph on the Nord Stream attacks in the final declaration. That initiative was rejected by Western countries as well.
- On March 7, 2023, The New York Times reported, citing US officials, that some vague pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack without the US authorities knowing anything. (Again, this does not explain President Joe Biden’s statement about destroying this civilian infrastructure facility, does it?). At the same time, Die Zeit reported that German investigators had identified the boat used by the saboteurs. The boat was allegedly rented by a Ukrainian-owned company registered in Poland. We all remember the fantastic story featuring a pleasure yacht, persistently peddled by the Western media as the main version of events.
- On March 8, 2023, The Times announced that European intelligence services knew the name of the “private sponsor” of the sabotage. Predictably, his identity was not disclosed except for a few hints that he was a wealthy Ukrainian with no connection with Vladimir Zelensky or his regime.
- On March 27, 2023, the UN Security Council did not support the resolution on an international inquiry into the sabotage of the Nord Streams, which was again initiated by Russia and China. Three countries (Russia, China and Brazil) voted in favour, no one voted against, and 12 abstained. The resolution failed to garner the nine votes necessary to be adopted, and clearly the West was behind this.
- On February 7, 2024, the Swedish prosecutor’s office announced that it was closing the investigation: “The investigation has now reached such a stage that the authorities have a clear view of the incident and that nothing has emerged to indicate that Sweden or Swedish citizens were involved in the attack which took place in international waters. <…> the Swedish investigation has been able to establish and confirm circumstances that, taken together, lead to the conclusion that there is no longer any reason to continue the Swedish preliminary investigation because it can be assumed that Swedish courts lack jurisdiction.” I would like to add that Sweden has not expelled a single Western diplomat, for example, a US diplomat, when it was US President Joe Biden who publicly said that the Nord Stream infrastructure project would be destroyed.
- On February 26, 2024, the Danish police closed the investigation into the pipeline explosions, as there was allegedly insufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.
No big deal, just some Baltic underwater pipeline was blown up, releasing harmful substances into the atmosphere, affecting the environment over a vast area and inflicting damage on investors and owners. No big deal, just some end consumer took the flak. Oh yes, Denmark was decidedly short of evidence for instituting criminal proceedings.
“Based on the investigation, the authorities may conclude that there was a deliberate sabotage attack on the pipelines. But there are not sufficient grounds to pursue a criminal case in Denmark.”
- On September 15, 2024, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “We in Germany want to bring those who have done this to account, if we manage to catch them. You may count on that.” He described the pipeline blasts as terrorist attacks and urged the security agencies and the Prosecutor General to carry out an investigation “regardless of someone’s interests.”
It’s an amazing metamorphosis: a continent known to be vocal about discarded plastic threatening climate change (just recall Greta Thunberg’s numerous “pickets”) is demonstratively closing its eyes to a terrorist attack against its own energy security and the real environmental damage caused. Where are joint resolutions by, say, the G7? Where are urgent meetings? Where is the “unanimous condemnation” so beloved by Brussels, when they point a finger at geopolitical rivals? Where is at least something coming from the Council of Europe and PACE?
There is a deathly silence instead of an investigation! Instead of urging explanations, they perform ritual dances around the claim that “nothing indicates that some or other country in Europe or its citizens were in any way implicated in the attack.” As if the pipelines, which reliably supplied gas to Europe for decades, have suddenly ignited spontaneously from an excess of patriotism. It’s convenient. You must admit, it’s a convenient narrative. It’s true that they should be ashamed. But obviously, shame is a convenient thing for them now.
A large-scale terrorist attack that has cost the European continent so dearly can be erased from the agenda as if nothing has happened.
But it is not just that they have blown up the “pipes”; they have blown up the foundations of international law. The efforts to support and protect the environment were blown up. The sovereignty of West European countries was blown up. But did the collective West notice this monstrous irony? The Western media that eagerly report “horrors” about a tiny leak somewhere for hours or invent fantasies about a “Russian”/Soviet submarine surfacing in the middle of a Western city, or meditate on a submerged cable that was accidentally disrupted by a ship, the Western media, I say, have turned away from what has happened in reality and the immense adverse consequences that have ensued.
Western politicians, who usually flaunt “green values,” “human rights,” “tolerance,” diversity and new ethics, prefer to remain silent about the methane discharge equivalent to a year of emissions from a million cars.
Why? Is it because the true puppet-masters of this drama are those who benefit from turning Europe into a perennial hostage to costly LNG? Or perhaps exposing the sabotage attack will reveal the uncomfortable truth that the European elites have long ceased to be masters in their own home?
So far, we see Western Europe’s inaction and helplessness. Still, we demand answers. We know that Brussels does not respond to our demands. Neither does it intend to. But we will continue the work.
I would like to remind you that at the end of January 2025, the Danish authorities granted the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, permission to begin work on the conservation of the damaged section of the pipeline. Notably, the work was scheduled to begin on April 1, 2025. In addition, the operator is required to report annually on its specific actions regarding the pipeline, including the sections of pipe that are expected to be laid on the seabed.
The Danish Energy Agency emphasised that the goal of these operations is to minimise environmental risks, specifically to prevent gas from escaping the pipeline and to stop seawater, rich in oxygen, from flowing into it. During the conservation process, special insulating plugs will be installed at both ends of the pipeline, and the deformed sections of the pipe will be cut off before the work begins.
The speed with which decisions were made is remarkable. After 2.5 years since the terrorist attack, which occurred on September 26, 2022, the environmental damage had seemingly not concerned anyone. Yet, suddenly, there is this “moment of clarity.” In the words of Stanislavsky, “We don’t believe it.”
From our side, since the time of the attack, we have consistently and openly stated our interest in uncovering the truth behind the incident and holding those responsible for this act of terrorism accountable. We have repeatedly appealed to the German authorities, urging them to involve Russian competent authorities in the investigation being conducted by the German prosecutor's office, to ensure it is open and objective. All of our requests for legal assistance regarding this crime have been met with no substantive response from the German side; none of them have been addressed.
No concrete results from the German investigation into the bombing attack have been presented to date. Germany and Poland have not even managed to detain a suspect, who managed to escape to Ukraine. One cannot help but wonder: how sincere are the German authorities in their declared intentions to conduct an unbiased investigation? Is Germany truly independent in making decisions regarding such investigations? The answer is obvious.
Recently, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked in an interview with Channel One about Europe’s interest in restoring its energy security. He replied, “Today, Europe and its businesses are paying several times more for their energy compared to US companies. At the same time, people like Robert Habeck, Ursula von der Leyen and Boris Pistorius have been saying that they would never allow the Nord Stream pipelines to be restored. These people are either sick or suicidal.” Remember these words.
Human rights crisis in the Baltic States
Once again, we highlight the distressing human rights situation, including ethnic minorities, in the Baltic States.
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have turned into reactionary police states. Their ruling nationalist regimes rely on Neanderthal Russophobia in their domestic and foreign policies. Dissenters are being harassed and persecuted on false pretexts. Pressed by the authorities, prosecutors and judges have become obedient cogs in the wheel of the punitive justice system of the Baltic States.
Latvia tops the list of the Baltic States with the worst human rights record. Our compatriots that the regime finds undesirable are rounded up right off the streets, charged with made-up violations, and thrown behind bars. This is how a prominent researcher and human rights activist Alexander Gaponenko was taken into custody and now faces up to 20 years in prison. On March 10, the Riga District Court declined the defence’s request to change the measure of restraint and left the 71-year-old prisoner of conscience behind bars.
The Standing Commission on International Cooperation for Human Rights at the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights petitioned international organisations, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities requesting an urgent intervention in the illegal arrest of Alexander Gaponenko considering his old age and poor health.
A well-known human rights and political activist, former member of the European Parliament Tatyana Zhdanok, compatriots Tatyana Andriets, Yelena Kreile, Sergey Sidorov, and Svetlana Nikolayeva have also been subjected to criminal prosecution on politically-driven accusations in Latvia.
The drawn-out trial of a prominent politician and anti-fascist Algirdas Paleckis staged by the Lithuanian authorities that has lasted many years now is among of egregious manifestations of lawlessness in that country. His prison sentence was extended by 22 months in March for allegedly “slandering” members of the “Forest Brothers” gangs, who, as is well known, are held in high regard by the Lithuanian authorities as “national heroes.” All he did was say the truth. He was first thrown behind bars for conducting an independent investigation into the events of January 13, 1991 in Vilnius. As a reminder, a group of protesting civilians was shot by unidentified snipers back then. This investigation could reveal the truth about the involvement of representatives of the ruling Lithuanian elite in that tragedy.
In 2023, the Lithuanian authorities liquidated the association International Forum of Good Neighbourhood founded by Paleckis’ associates, which advocated for normalised relations between Vilnius and Moscow and Minsk. Criminal cases were opened against its activists.
Things aren’t much better in Estonia. Our compatriots Andrey Andronov and Sergey Seredenko are being persecuted on political grounds. Criminal cases have been manufactured against representatives of independent media Svetlana Burtseva, Allan Hantsom, and others.
Russia will continue to press to elicit a clear response from the relevant international organisations to the legal outrage in the Baltic States, which shows no signs of abating. We will act in our national capacity.
Russia’s provision of humanitarian aid to Myanmar
On March 28, the most devastating in the past 95 years magnitude 7.7 earthquake broke out in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and led to massive destruction of infrastructure and social buildings. The consequences of the earthquake could also felt in Thailand, especially in Bangkok. President Putin, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, the top officials of the State Duma, as well as heads of a number of Russian regions that maintain close ties with the Republic of the Union of Myanmar sent their condolences to the people of Myanmar.
According to the latest information, more than 3,000 people have died in Myanmar, many are missing. Eighteen people died and 33 were injured in neighbouring Thailand. According to our Embassy in Yangon, one Russian died in Mandalay. Our diplomats are working to establish the circumstances.
By order of President Vladimir Putin and as part of providing humanitarian relief to the friendly Myanmar people, five Emergencies Ministry Il-76 planes landed in that country on March 29 and March 31. The combined unit of 264 rescuers, the largest grouping among the countries that sent humanitarian aid, includes members from the Tsentrospas Airmobile Unit and the Leader Centre for High-Risk Special Operations, as well as canine teams, anesthesiologists, and psychologists. The specialists delivered to Myanmar the necessary search equipment. In the most affected areas, including the city of Mandalay, which is home to world-famous architectural monuments of Buddhist heritage, rescuers from the Russian Emergencies Ministry started working on March 30.
The Federal Centre for Disaster Medicine of the Healthcare Ministry deployed a hospital, which consists of intensive care, therapeutic and dressing units, and began to provide medical help in that area on April 1. A team of Emergency Surgery and Children’s Trauma Department from Doctor Leonid Roshal’s Clinic arrived in Myanmar.
On behalf of the Foreign Ministry, we express our condolences to the surviving families and wish a speedy recovery to everyone injured in this terrible cataclysm.
We reaffirm the Russian Federation’s solidarity with the friendly people of Myanmar and stand ready to provide the necessary relief.
Presentation of a book on the real causes of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Italy
On March 29, 2025, a presentation of a collection of articles titled The Real Causes of the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict (Le vere cause del conflitto Russo-Ucraino) was held in the Pietro Mario Beghi Library in the town of La Spezia, the Liguria region of Italy. A presentation of a book is a normal and even an ordinary event in a democratic country, unless its contents violate the local legislation. But the presentation of that book produced an unprecedented outcry in Italy.
The Ukrainian diaspora and several members of the Italian establishment did everything in their power to precent the presentation. This means that it is a good book. The organisers and municipal authorities showed considerable civil courage to hold the event. I would like to express our gratitude to these and many other concerned people, who have shown what real commitment to the freedom of speech means to those who have lost the ability to distinguish between truth and lies and democracy from dictatorship.
The presentation was a huge success. The library hall where it was held was filled to capacity. It is evidence of the public demand for the truth about the developments in Ukraine, which is stronger than any external bans or marginal wrath.
I would like to tell you about the book that has provoked such a violent reaction. It was released in October 2024 by the Italian publishing house Visione Editore. The publication was financed by Francesco Toscano, the leader of the Sovereign Popular Democracy party. The book is built around Vladimir Putin’s article, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, published on July 12, 2021.
The book was first presented in the residence of the Russian ambassador to Italy on October 23, 2024. It was presented to the Italian public in the cities of Trieste, Reggio di Calabria and Reggio Emilia in 2024, and in Rome, Trento and Genoa in 2025.
Regrettably, there is growing censorship and infringements on the freedom of speech in Italy. A recent example is a ban on the screening of RT’s documentary, Maidan: Road to War, at the University of Turin at the request of Ukrainian nationalists in Italy. The screening organisers held a protest rally against censorship in the square at the Teatro Regio (Royal Theatre). A statement by a professor of the University of Turin on the national television became widely known. He expressed his indignation by asking the Italian authorities, “Where is our democracy?”
I believe that the Italians who can read will be able to make their own choice and draw their own conclusions from that book.
New facts about Nazi criminals in Canada
We continue monitoring the story about the demand by researchers and Jewish organisations to declassify the archives of the Deschenes Commission (the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada), which was established in the 1980s to investigate the lives of hundreds of Nazi accomplices accused of committing war crimes during the Great Patriotic War.
A group of American historians led by Jared McBride, a history professor at the University of California, has recent gained access to typed and handwritten files with the names of Nazis and their accomplices who were given asylum in Canada, which are available online. The list was stored at the Library and Archives Canada. It is believed to be the final copy kept in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police war crimes files. McBride and his students did not publish that list but forwarded it to Canadian journalists, who have reported that there are 774 names on it. They have only mentioned the names of especially notorious persons, such as an initiator of the 14th Galicia Division Vladimir Kubiyovich and Helmut Oberlander from the death squads of Sonderkommando 10a (Sk 10a), who participated in the massacres of children in the Krasnodar Territory in 1942-1943.
This story is yet another reminder of the fact that the Canadian authorities encouraged Nazi criminals and their accomplices from collaboration units, including those guilty of the Holocaust, to move to Canada starting in 1948. These people were not called to account for their crimes but enjoyed protection and patronage.
We regard the scandalous standing ovation which Yaroslav Gunko (Hunka), a member of the 14th Galicia Division of the SS, received in the Canadian Parliament in September 2023, as an open glorification of Nazism and an attempt to rewrite history. Ottawa has not deported that Nazi criminal, just like it refused to turn Nazi criminals Vladimir Katryuk (the Khatyn butcher) and Helmut Oberlander over to Russia.
Another scandal has recently been provoked by Canadian Ambassador Sarah Taylor, who made insulting Russophobic comments after laying flowers at the Motherland monument at Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery in St Petersburg. The Foreign Ministry has issued a demarche to the Embassy of Canada in connection with Taylor’s insinuations, which we regard as unacceptable and insulting to our people and to the memory of the victims of the siege of Leningrad. The ambassador attempted to justify the crimes of the Nazi invaders as a result of the Soviet-German agreement, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This is outrageous. It is not just unacceptable but also especially inappropriate on the eve of celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory to which Canada also contributed as a member of the anti-Hitler coalition. She has shown that she doesn’t know the history of Russia and has also spat in the back and insulted the memory of Canadian veterans. Many of them have passed away and cannot answer her, but we will do this on their behalf.
We firmly believe that the list of Nazi criminals who have found refuge in Canada after WWII will eventually become public knowledge. When we learn the names, we will be able to establish their family ties with some of the current Canadian politicians and public figures. This will not be discarded as “Russian disinformation and propaganda.”
I don’t think that many of them would be happy about such relatives, unlike Chrystia Freeland, former deputy prime minister and finance minister and the granddaughter of Nazi collaborator Mikhail Khomyak (Michael Chomiak), who was also Canada’s foreign minister. Unlike her, many members of the Canadian government and related agencies will receive an unpleasant shock.
Additional information about this situation in Canada is available in the country section of the updated Foreign Ministry’s report Regarding the Situation with the Glorification of Nazism and the Spread of Neo-Nazism and Other Practices That Contribute to Fuelling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
April 4, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava from Nazi invaders. The occupiers were expelled from the capital of Slovakia as a result of the Bratislava-Brno offensive operation (March 25 – May 5, 1945), which involved units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, commanded by Marshal Rodion Malinovsky.
Marshal Matvey Zakharov, Chief of Staff of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, commented on these events: “Before advancing on Bratislava, the front’s command established communications with Slovak partisans, who proved to be invaluable. They provided crucial intelligence about the German fortification system, plans for defending specific cities, as well as the strength and organisation of the enemy forces.”
On March 25, Soviet forces launched a decisive offensive on the heavily fortified city. In an effort to minimise civilian casualties and destruction, the Soviet high command opted not to use large-calibre artillery systems, primarily deploying assault infantry units instead. By April 2, Soviet forces had entered the eastern and north-eastern districts of the city. On April 4, Red Army units reached Bratislavsky Hrad, a fortress in central Bratislava, where the remaining German garrison was holed up. The city fell by the end of the day, with scattered Nazi units retreating towards Vienna.
Soviet authorities immediately began efforts to restore normal life in the city. Archive documents from the Russian Defence Ministry, declassified ahead of the 75th anniversary of Bratislava’s liberation, indicate that rubble and debris had been cleared from the city’s central streets and squares by April 10, 1945.The sewage system was reactivated, and people began returning to their homes from nearby villages.
As a result of the Bratislava-Brno operation, units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front advanced by 200 kilometres, defeated nine Wehrmacht divisions and created favourable conditions for the advance on Prague and Vienna. Moscow celebrated this victory with a festive fireworks display, and Soviet military units that distinguished themselves in the liberation of Bratislava received the honorary designation of Bratislava.
A total of 6,845 Soviet officers and soldiers lost their lives while fighting in Bratislava, most of whom are buried at the Slavin military memorial complex in the centre of the Slovak capital. Every year on April 4, this complex hosts commemorative events dedicated to the city’s liberation from Nazi invaders, with participation from Russian representatives. This year, a delegation of students from MGIMO University will take part in the event. In total, 63,518 Soviet service personnel were killed while liberating Slovakia.
Simultaneously, elements of the 3rd Ukrainian Front halted a major German offensive south of Lake Balaton in Hungary, where the German high command had deployed its best remaining tank units, amid intense and bloody fighting. The Red Army pursued the retreating enemy units and completely liberated Hungary by April 4.
The Wehrmacht’s further resistance was futile from a military and strategic perspective, serving only as an attempt by Adolf Hitler and his inner circle to delay their inevitable downfall by sacrificing the lives of hundreds of thousands of their compatriots.
Over 140,000 Soviet officers and soldiers were killed in action or went missing while liberating Hungary. There are 1,231 Russian (Soviet) burial sites in the country, including 1,036 that date back to the WWII period.
Fine Dining: Stories of Food in Ancient China exhibition to open in Moscow
On April 10, the Fine Dining: Stories of Food in Ancient China exhibition will open at the Patriarch’s Palace of the Moscow Kremlin Museums.
The Moscow Kremlin Museums are hosting the China National Museum’s project in response to its own exhibition held in China. The exhibition, Russian Feast – Traditional Foods, Drinks and the Art of Table Setting, from the Collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, was held in Beijing from November 2024 to March 16, 2025. It had about 100,000 visitors and was clearly a success. Both projects are part of the Russia-China Cross Years of Culture official programme for 2024-2025.
The display to be presented in Moscow is dedicated to gastronomic traditions, which are an important part of human culture. Chinese people consider eating as something more than satisfying basic body needs: a shared meal is a good way to strengthen friendships and harmony between people, as well as a source of inspiration in many arts.
The exhibition will feature items from the collection of one of the largest and most visited museums in the world – the National Museum of China, including exquisite porcelain, luxurious fabrics and beautiful scrolls with images of imperial banquets. Visitors will be able to appreciate China’s rich culture and history, to explore culinary techniques from old times and trace the evolution of kitchen utensils. The exhibition will give an idea of how rich the Chinese diet is through a variety of historical references. A whole section of the display is dedicated to the most popular drinks in China, tea and wine. Their use dates back thousands of years.
Question: You have just mentioned Bucha. A few days ago, Vladimir Zelensky chose the place to gather high-ranking representatives from European countries and made a loud statement that Russia had committed more than 180,000 war crimes in Ukraine. How would you comment on this statement?
Maria Zakharova: This is yet another nonsensical statement from Vladimir Zelensky, as well as a sample of harmful propaganda.
We have heard countless allegations by now, and disavowed them. We have discussed Bucha at length today. We have been reading many monstrous fakes spread by the Kiev regime about the alleged abduction of 20,000 Ukrainian children by Russia.
I have no comment to make on this “information noise.” I don’t even want to repeat their inventions. Because they sound simply delirious.
Unfortunately, the West is helping them and is eagerly relaying their stories. I can give you an example to prove that those are lies and falsehoods.
First, the Kiev regime cannot provide any supporting facts, documents or evidence to substantiate any of the above-mentioned allegations. No names of the murdered civilians or abducted minors have been provided.
Second, we have tools for handling emerging issues. We have collected real information. That information, to put it mildly, is at odds with the stories the Kiev regime is propagating.
Third, they have been caught red-handed once. There was one human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova, who admitted that she had lied about the sexual crimes allegedly committed by Russian servicemen. She did it to secure international support for the Kiev regime. To achieve that, they invent tall tales. They need to raise money, so they go around with a begging bowl. They need to continue to terrorise the European continent. They need to justify their actions. This is the reason they propagate such monstrous insinuations.
They are doing it systemically. These are not some occasional morbid fantasies. This is systematic work.
Russian investigative bodies are carefully recording all cases of atrocities and crimes committed by the armed formations controlled by the Kiev regime; they are collecting these facts. The perpetrators will be brought to justice on the basis of evidence collected by the investigation, the testimonies of witnesses, not propaganda fabrications.
Question: On March 27, 2025, Russia expanded restrictions on international road transport of goods by carriers from the countries that had imposed sanctions against it, in particular, to Moldova. The Moldovan government has described the decision as “an economic blow” and evidence of Moscow’s “negative attitude” to it. What is the Foreign Ministry’s attitude to such statements?
Maria Zakharova: We regard the accusations by the Moldovan government’s press service as absurd because they mix the causes and consequences. Let’s look at the real state of affairs.
In February 2022, the Moldovan authorities expressed solidarity with the Kiev regime, and since then they have been consistently pursuing the destructive line for eroding centuries-long Russian-Moldovan relations.
This is what they have done:
– Chisinau has restricted official dialogue to contacts between foreign ministries, or more precisely, the summoning of ambassadors. It was Moldova that has suspended the discussion of substantive bilateral issues;
– Moldova’s National Security Strategy approved in December 2023, and its National Defence Strategy adopted in December 2024 describe Russia as the most dangerous and permanent source of threats to the democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the republic;
– Chisinau is complying with the Western sanctions against Russia, including regarding the re-export of Russian goods, banking transactions, and bans on direct air flights and railway communication;
– In November 2023, Moldova suddenly felt the urge to officially join the EU sanctions adopted since 2014 against Russian individuals and legal entities in connection with actions that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. According to the Moldovan authorities, Chisinau has supported about 80 percent of the EU’s restrictions against Russia. This has backfired at the citizens of Moldova;
– In July 2023, Chisinau sharply reduced the number of officials at Russian offices in Moldova. Russian Ambassador Oleg Ozerov has been openly discriminated against. He arrived in Moldova in October 2024 but has been unable to conduct normal diplomatic activities in accordance with the Vienna conventions. The list of the Moldovan authorities’ actions can be continued ad infinitum.
Nevertheless, Russia refrained from comparable responses until recently, knowing that this would affect Moldovan citizens, the Moldovan business community, and the economic operators who are willing to maintain and develop constructive, neighbourly and mutually beneficial relations. But one must draw the line somewhere.
And lastly, it is important to note that the road transport restriction means that foreign carriers can deliver their goods to Russian border checkpoints where they can be reloaded to the vehicles of Russian operators for transportation across Russia. Moldovan transport operators are free to coordinate this matter with their Russian counterparts.
This is the real state of affairs.
Question: The French court’s ruling against Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party, barring her from electoral participation for five years, has sparked significant backlash not only in France but globally. Many perceive this as an attempt by official Paris to eliminate a key political rival ahead of the 2027 elections. How would you comment on this decision?
Maria Zakharova: It would seem all possible commentary has already been exhausted. Inventing fresh analysis is a challenge.
The predominant thesis among commentators – within France, abroad, and in our country – revolves around this being an assassination of democracy. Attention has also been drawn to remarks by Jordan Bardella, President of the National Rally, who asserted that with Marine Le Pen’s sentencing, French democracy itself has been executed. All discourse orbits this conclusion.
Unlike France, we generally refrain from commenting on the domestic political affairs of other states or decisions of their judicial bodies. However, given the question’s premise, and considering France’s persistent critiques of our internal agenda, why not seize this opportunity? In the current international climate, developments in a leading European nation – one that has positioned itself as a spearhead of the Western anti-Russian camp – cannot be met with indifference.
There is a growing sense that Europe’s ruling circles, intent on transforming the European Union into a militarised bloc fixated on confrontation with Russia, have embarked with renewed zeal on sanitising their own political landscape.
The Le Pen case is but one link in a protracted chain of political persecutions, reprisals, and repressions in recent months. One need only recall the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the pressure on opposition figures in Germany, or Romania’s brazen annulment of presidential election results. In this same vein, we view the arrest of Gagauzia’s Head, Evghenia Guțul. The European Union and its acolytes are protecting their political space from undesirable figures by launching probes and initiating criminal cases on spurious charges.
Returning to France: prominent politicians aspiring to public office suddenly find themselves embroiled in legal entanglements. They are simply eliminated from political life, scrubbed from the race. Alain Juppé, François Fillon, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Nicolas Sarkozy exemplify this trend.
We trust France’s appellate courts will deliver a legally sound assessment of this ruling. For our part, we might advise French leadership – before it next presumes, in its characteristically boorish manner, to reiterate its observations and reproaches on political rights and freedoms in our country – to address its own domestic troubles. They have no shortage thereof.
Question: In recent days, Moldova expelled three Russian diplomats, one of whom served as the Russian Co-Chair of the Joint Control Commission. The Transnistrian settlement process is currently facing severe challenges. How will this move impact the resolution of the Transnistrian issue? There is unprecedented speculation about developments there and what may unfold.
Maria Zakharova: Baseless allegations by Moldovan officials alleging Moscow’s malicious attempts to destabilise the situation have become routine.
The current manufactured scandal surrounding the Russian Embassy in Chisinau follows the same pattern. It has been orchestrated to the playbook: media speculation, presentation of dubious edited clips featuring selectively cropped footage.
Let them disclose the full recordings – not just their spliced clips. Then we might observe how many vehicles belonging to Moldovan security services under Maia Sandu’s government are surveilling the Embassy, Russian citizens, and diplomats. Let them reveal everything, since they have embarked on this path. We will scrutinise it: where their surveillance operatives are, what they are doing, what liberties they are taking. No need for modesty. Their clips hold no interest for anyone.
This is neither intriguing nor surprising – except perhaps to those living in the last century. Let them publish the complete footage. We, too, will examine how Russian citizens visiting our Embassy on entirely lawful grounds are shadowed by Moldovan security personnel and under what authority. Let them explain this. We await their justifications. It is time to answer for this, Maia Sandu.
The fixation on blaming Russia for all misfortunes borders on farce. Why are they doing this? It is a groundless effort to shift responsibility onto our country for Moldova’s dire straits – crisis born of the authorities’ incompetent policies, which stubbornly steer the republic down Ukraine’s path. This applies to every sphere of public life: an economy in profound crisis, collapsing social and healthcare systems, and a disintegrating education sector.
These damning assessments are not Moscow’s invention. We merely echo Moldovan experts. Moreover, the authorities openly practise legal arbitrariness, repressing independent – primarily Russian-language – media. They crush opposition figures irrespective of nationality, subjecting all Maia Sandu’s regime critics to the grinder. The detention and subsequent arrest of the lawfully elected Head of Gagauzia, Evghenia Guțul, is emblematic. Even the President’s supporters shuddered, realising they could be next.
Crucially, one of the declared personae non gratae was Russia’s Co-Chair of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) – the mechanism overseeing the peacekeeping operation in Transnistria. We view this as part of ongoing efforts to undermine a proven, effective, and unique trilateral format that has ensured stability in the region for over 30 years. It is particularly alarming that the expulsion coincides with emerging positive momentum in the JCC’s work.
Let me reiterate: The Russian Embassy in Chisinau operates strictly in compliance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We trust Chisinau will eventually muster the wisdom to draw appropriate conclusions. Accusations of Russian interference in Moldova’s internal affairs are entirely unfounded. They form part of the official Chisinau’s anti-Russian agenda, pursuing the immoral and anti-popular aim of obliterating historically rooted Russian-Moldovan ties.
This will not succeed. Yet Maia Sandu inflicts colossal damage on her own nation. Most Moldovan citizens advocate normalising and deepening dialogue with Russia. We remain open to this and have always supported it.
Let me recall: We have assisted, continue to assist, and will persist in assisting Russian citizens in defending their rights and lawful interests. This is our mandate, and we abide by it.
The Moldovan leadership’s hostile actions will not go unanswered by Russia. They know precisely what we mean.
Question: President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic discussed defence industry cooperation with the EU with Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa in Brussels. Serbia and Hungary have just signed an agreement on military cooperation. What is Russia’s stance on that?
Maria Zakharova: In case you don’t know, the European Union is struggling to keep afloat and failing, including its economy, politics, industry and finance. Everything is sinking, obviously. Why would anyone want to board a sinking ship? To go down with it? This is the reality, confirmed by facts and figures.
What kind of defence industry are they talking about? What defence capability does the European Union have? We only hear sporadic hysterical calls, which mention “nuclear umbrellas”, or some sort of “messianism.” In fact, they could not even do anything about the local crisis in Ukraine. The EU failed this mission when they had a chance – when it was an emerging conflict, and it was not about weapons, but about political and diplomatic efforts.
Do they think new types of weapons will help them, because they are not very good at handling crises by political and diplomatic methods? Or some new defence concept will do the trick? No. I’d suggest anyone whom the European Union offers this kind of cooperation had better look at the broader picture of what they are being offered. Even a child knows that the European economy is down.
I also think that the news that came from Washington this night were additional proof that the GDP growth rate forecast projected by Brussels a couple of years ago is not destined to come true. One need to understand what they’re joining.
Joining a strong powerhouse with ample resources and wise polices in various fields is one thing, but a sinking ship falling apart in the process is quite another. A sovereign country must make an independent and informed decision. There are some obvious considerations that are confirmed by facts.
Question: EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos publicly disapproved of Aleksandar Vulin joining the next Serbian government because of his sympathies to Russia. What message would Moscow like to convey to both Brussels and Belgrade in this regard?
Maria Zakharova: We view the repeated statements made by European bureaucrats as a crude and shameless interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. We believe that this is absolutely unacceptable, and that the Serbian people alone can make decisions on their country’s future. Its government is primarily responsible to its voters, the citizens and the nation. Brussels officials have no legal – let alone moral – right to tell a country which policy it should pursue.
Question: Given Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s recent statement that his country will not permit Palestinian administration control over the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River, what are the potential repercussions for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process? How does Russia assess such declarations in the context of international efforts to achieve a sustainable resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?
Maria Zakharova: We have recently heard repeated statements from Israeli politicians regarding the Middle East settlement.
The primary objective of Russian diplomacy is to steer the Middle Eastern conflict towards a political resolution.
The resumption of a peace process addressing final status issues necessitates the complete cessation of hostilities and the establishment of direct dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis, anchored in the internationally approved legal framework.
Let me remind you that the foundation of this framework is the “two-state formula” – Palestine within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting peacefully and securely alongside Israel. This must include maintaining the administrative unity of the West Bank and Gaza under the Palestinian National Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
To this end, the Russian Federation maintains continuous dialogue with the Palestinian National Authority, diverse Palestinian political movements, Israel, and key regional stakeholders. We urge all parties to pursue a durable political solution to this protracted conflict.
We insist on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all detainees. Russia is actively engaged in fostering Palestinian unity on the political platform of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
We are guided by the principle that fulfilling the Palestinian people’s right to an independent, sovereign state will serve as a bedrock guarantee for regional security.
The history of the region demonstrates that attempts to impose solutions by force or to prioritise one’s security at the expense of others’ only exacerbate instability. Thus, revitalising regional and international cooperation – including collective mediation – is imperative to create conditions for restarting Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. In this context, we support diplomatic initiatives by Arab and Muslim states to stabilise Gaza, notably the long-term reconstruction plan for the territory endorsed by the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
We reaffirm our readiness to collaborate closely with regional and international actors to achieve a sustainable Middle Eastern settlement.
Russia advocates for enhancing the role of the United Nations and its Secretary-General as the coordinating hub for mediation efforts.
Question: The EU is actively seeking to expand its influence in Central Asian states. Could former Soviet republics pivot towards Brussels following the Samarkand summit?
Maria Zakharova: I have just answered a similar question regarding Serbia. Let me reiterate: the EU lacks the capacity to sustain anyone –economically, industrially, or otherwise. They are currently preoccupied with resolving their own snowballing crises. I am confident that the wisdom of our neighbours, closest allies, and friends – those you reference – will safeguard them from succumbing anew to the seductive promises of those who have repeatedly deceived them.
Question: On March 24 this year, US President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on countries purchasing gas and oil from Venezuela, accusing Caracas of covertly sending criminals to the US. What is the Russian Federation’s position on these unilateral US sanctions against Venezuela?
Maria Zakharova: A targeted response to this question will be provided shortly.
Question: Finnish President Alexander Stubb urged his fellow citizens to mentally prepare for the restoration of relations with Russia. How do you interpret this statement, and is Moscow open to reestablishing ties despite Helsinki’s ongoing unfriendly actions?
Maria Zakharova: I sympathise with the people of Finland. They were misled, deceived by falsehoods and propaganda, and swayed by persuasion. No one asked them directly whether they wanted to join NATO, they were simply brought in. So much profit was lost, so much potential not realised, so many opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation with our country were squandered – cooperation that we had spent decades building.
We hear talks about intentions to restore relations with us, with even some timelines mentioned. Recently, Sergey Lavrov reminded that it takes two to tango, and for the dance to be successful, both parties must be willing.
Russia remains open to fostering not only normal but also friendly relations with foreign nations, grounded in mutual respect, equality, and consideration of each other’s interests. We are also prepared to restore ties with countries currently in a deep crisis – not by our own doing – if they sincerely wish to do so, acknowledge their past actions, and regret their aggressive Russophobic stance. This approach is consistently reaffirmed in the statements of Russian leadership, which are always characterised by consistency.
Now, let’s examine the stance of Finland’s leadership. It would be difficult to say that they are striving for peace, friendship, or mutual understanding. We clearly remember Alexander Stubb’s militant remarks, claiming that the Russian authorities supposedly “only understand the language of force,” his repeated pledges to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and his admiration for Finnish citizens who chose to go to Ukraine to fight as “volunteers.” Yet now, all of a sudden, he calls to be mentally prepared for the restoration of relations with Russia. Making such inconsistent statements is a problem for any statesman. We won’t speculate on what lies behind this shift.
In any case, if these words are meant for the many Finns befuddled by Russophobic propaganda, they should also be told who misled them. A vague call thrown into space is not enough.
The current Finnish leadership has much to attend to: stop flooding its media space with baseless anti-Russian narratives, re-open the Russian-Finnish border, closed under a flimsy pretext, and stop the illegal erection of barriers there, lift the ban on automobile and rail traffic between our countries, abandon the practice of persecuting citizens for expressing sensible ideas of normalising relations with Russia, and reassess its aggressive military posture toward us. The list can go on and on. Most importantly, Helsinki must recognise the futility of the utopian idea imposed by the collective West that a strategic defeat can be inflicted on Russia, an illusion that is fraught with profoundly destructive consequences.
We are always open to those who genuinely seek peaceful coexistence, friendship, and cooperation. However, such a country must be willing to take certain steps toward that goal. As for those who claim to be willing to restore ties while continuing their acts of aggression and debate convenient timelines for making contacts, I would remind that our people have a historical preference for engaging with aggressors in the spring, usually in the first ten days of May, somewhere between the 8th and 9th.
Question: Could you comment on Poland’s intention to sue Russian experts over the Tu-154 crash?
Maria Zakharova: On April 1, 2025, Krzysztof Schwartz, head of the Polish Prosecutor’s Office team investigating the crash of the Tu-154M plane, which carried the Polish president, near Smolensk North Airport on April 10, 2010, told the Polish Press Agency that the relevant Polish authorities would issue requests for the temporary arrest of 43 Russian forensic experts. Criminal proceedings against them have been initiated over the allegation that their forensic analysis contained false information.
Regrettably, the 2010 crash is a grim page in the history of our bilateral relations, which Poland has been using for dirty political speculations. The procedural action announced by the Polish official is yet another attempt to revive public attention ahead of the 15th anniversary of that tragedy.
In the context of Western “legal nihilism” and considering that the Smolensk tragedy is obviously politicised in Poland, we regard the Polish prosecutor’s decision as a fresh manifestation of Russophobia and a striving to gain political scores by accusing Russian citizens in yet another anti-Russia move.
We shared the pain of the Polish delegation’s death 15 years ago with the Polish people. The necessary conditions for effective interaction between the two countries’ relevant agencies were created in the shortest time ever. These allegations, made retroactively, are not just absurd but also insulting to the memory of the victims.
Question: Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with the magazine International Affairs that Russia disapproved of the “threats and ultimatums” to Iran because they could ultimately have catastrophic consequences. What is Russia’s current stance on Iran and the nuclear deal? How dangerous is the situation?
Maria Zakharova: I would like to point out that Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov held a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran Majid Takht-Ravanchi on April 2. A press release on that meeting is available on our website.
As for the essence of your question, I can say that our bilateral contacts have reaffirmed the line set at the high-level Russian-Iranian-Chinese consultations held in Beijing on March 14 this year for coordinating viable and sustainable negotiated solutions aimed at eliminating Western bias and misunderstandings regarding the Iranian nuclear programme with due respect for Tehran’s legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy arising from Iran’s participation in the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Question: Considering Russia’s potential role as an intermediary in Iran-US relations, what is Moscow’s attitude to the use of pressure and threats, in particular, the threat of bombing raids and sanctions, as a means of promoting diplomatic progress? How can this tactic influence the achievement of a mutually acceptable solution in light of Tehran’s recent agreement to hold indirect talks despite such pressure? Has Russia exchanged views on this issue with the Americans?
Maria Zakharova: We have stated more than once that the use of military force by Iran’s opponents in the context of a settlement is illegal and unacceptable. The threats of bombing Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure, which would inevitably lead to large-scale and irreversible radiation and humanitarian consequences for the Middle East and the rest of the world, are unacceptable.
We stick to the line of searching for viable and lasting negotiated solutions, which should eliminate Western prejudices and misunderstandings regarding Iran’s nuclear programme with due regard for Tehran’s legitimate right to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy proceeding from its participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Question: At the previous briefing, you suggested we publish an article highlighting your praise for the Xinhua correspondent’s command of Russian. We not only published the article but also shared related videos across multiple platforms. Your courtesy and amity toward China left a profound impression on Chinese audiences, who are genuinely heartened by the high-level advancement of our bilateral relations. Thus, we extend our heartfelt gratitude once more.
Recently, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi likened Sino-Russian cooperation to a high-speed train, stating: “Though the scenery and weather along the route may change, the train’s direction and steady pace forward will remain unaltered.” How do you interpret this? What, in your view, ensures the stable development of our bilateral collaboration?
Maria Zakharova: In Moscow, we have studied with great interest the interview by the Chinese Foreign Minister, which was timed to coincide with his official visit to the Russian Federation.
The visit proved highly successful. Key discussions included preparations for President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to Moscow for the 80th anniversary commemorations of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
On April 1 this year, substantive talks were held with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. At the Kremlin, Wang Yi was received by President Vladimir Putin. Following these engagements – which, I emphasise, unfolded in the traditionally warm, friendly, and wholly trust-based atmosphere – the unprecedentedly high level of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China was reaffirmed.
Both sides remain steadfastly committed to the overarching trajectory of long-term neighbourly ties, irrespective of external conditions. Work will continue to implement agreements between President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping to deepen respectful, equitable, and mutually beneficial cooperation across practical domains and critical issues. This approach is driven by the two nations’ sovereign interests – including in security and development – and thus requires no revision. There is simply no necessity for it. Moreover, neither Moscow nor Beijing will act under duress, as certain ill-wishers might hope. We understand their desire to undermine the robust synergy between Moscow and Beijing. Rest assured, these detractors will be left empty-handed, while we press ahead with advancing bilateral cooperation across all spheres. Hence, the analogy you cited is both apt and evocative. Further symbolism could be explored – a task perhaps for future interviews with Russian media by Chinese officials. We will always welcome their perspectives and poetic imagery, invariably grounded in tangible steps and actions.
In global affairs, the Moscow-Beijing nexus serves as a vital stabilising force. We will continue joint efforts to promote a just, multipolar world order, intensifying coordination within multilateral organisations and forums – foremost the UN and its Security Council, the G20, BRICS, and the SCO.
Question: Human rights activist and political scientist Kirill Molchanov, who repeatedly contributed expert analysis to Ukraine.ru and other Russian media, has been arrested in Kiev. He is suspected of justifying the “Russian armed aggression” and of collaborationism. According to the investigation (Security Service of Ukraine), he allegedly worked for the FSB and Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Somewhat earlier, Bundestag deputies invited Mr Molchanov to Berlin, where he was to be awarded a prize and a grant for his human rights activities. But he was detained in Poland and deported to Ukraine without being given a chance to defend his rights in a Polish court. What is your comment on Europe’s behaviour towards a Russian citizen?
Maria Zakharova: The Russian Embassy in Warsaw has received no official notifications concerning this case. By all appearances, Kirill Molchanov, while en route to Berlin to receive a prize for his human rights activities, used his Ukrainian passport as he entered Poland and was extradited to Ukraine at its request, for the Polish authorities believed that he was a Ukrainian national.
We would like to note in this regard that the Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly called on all Russian citizens to weigh all the risks while planning visits to unfriendly countries. This is particularly important in a situation, where, as in the Molchanov case, there are all grounds to fear claims and provocations by the authorities of those countries, including with regard to their position on the Ukraine crisis. We will follow the developments.
Question: On April 1, the Ukrainian Navy Spokesperson Dmitry Pletenchuk made Kiev’s commitment to peace in the Black Sea conditional on mandatory legal formalisation of agreements.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also made an official statement to the effect that the agreements do not serve as the resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. What is your comment on Kiev’s statements? Are we talking about a resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, or a new agreement is being planned for signing, even if basically identical?
Maria Zakharova: We regard the statements you have mentioned as an awkward attempt by the Kiev regime to explain away its deliberate violation of the agreements on abandoning strikes on energy infrastructure of March 18.
We have mentioned the fact that a new agreement is in the making. It will be clear in the course of its development how it will be called.
Question: In a month’s time, Russia will be marking the 80th anniversary of Victory. You recently spoke about Germany’s approach to Soviet survivors and said that only people of Jewish origin were eligible to receive compensations from that country. Is that approach still valid? What do you make of this situation?
Maria Zakharova: Yes, unfortunately, this is true.
The German authorities are making humanitarian payments to the Siege of Leningrad survivors of exclusively Jewish descent and continue to cynically divide the victims of Nazi crimes into those who are “more eligible” and those who are “less eligible” and refuse to recognise the fact that the Siege of Leningrad and other crimes perpetrated by Nazis in the Soviet Union was genocide of the Soviet people. At the same time, the FRG regularly transfers social payments to former SS members, including those who directly participated in the siege.
This is immoral and disgraceful. This is exactly what we are talking about when we realise that there are people out there who we can call revanchists and who are willing to return to the “unfinished work” following the defeat of Nazism during the Second World War. It appears that the German authorities are incapable of learning lessons of history and display hypocrisy and duplicity in matters of historical responsibility for their atrocities and encourage historical revisionism in every possible way.
Russia will not give up its demands and will seek to have the German side act on them, and will also uphold historical and human justice.
Our veterans of all categories are taken care of in full by the state in every sense of the word. I’m not talking about money. It is about immorality of the cynical division of people, which, unfortunately, has historically been characteristic of Western Europe.
Question: In connection with the diplomatic scandal between Iceland and Russia, I would like to check some facts with you.
Radio Saga sent an inquiry to the Icelandic Foreign Ministry. In its tardy reply, it claims that the Russian embassy in Reykjavik has been notified about the fact that “Russia’s FSB is terrorising the Icelandic diplomatic mission in Moscow.” Is that true? I mean was the Russian Embassy in Reykjavik notified by the Icelandic Foreign Ministry about these occurrences?
Maria Zakharova: Once again we emphasise that neither the Russian Foreign Ministry, nor the Russian Embassy in Reykjavik have received any inquiries from the Icelandic side about the presence of any threats or security risks with regard to the Icelandic Embassy in Moscow, which has remained closed since August 1, 2023.
We will provide an update as soon as it becomes available.
Question: President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said that the Serbs liberated their country from Nazis on their own during the Second World War. According to him, the Soviet Union’s help was limited. Does this statement by the Serbian President distort history?
Maria Zakharova: You can read his statement verbatim. But when you quote it, you should put it in quotation marks. The issue is fairly complicated.
Surprisingly, the Serbian President failed to find the right words, especially in the year of the 80th anniversary of Victory, to honour the memory of the Red Army soldiers who liberated Europe, particularly Yugoslavia. As you may be aware, about 10,000 Red Army soldiers and officers died during the liberation of Yugoslavia. That includes 4,350 who died during the liberation of Belgrade from September 28 to October 20, 1944; 21,000 Red Army soldiers were wounded or went missing. About 6,000 Soviet citizens fought in the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. The losses among them (killed and missing in action) amounted to 1,500 people. I’m not the one to judge whether these people, their contribution, their lives, and their heroic feat are limited or limitless. But they sacrificed their lives without thinking about the “limits.” There’s no doubt about it. We fought alongside the Serbs against the enemy.
Yugoslavia is among those European countries that suffered the greatest losses in the fight against Nazism. The participants in the partisan movement made titanic efforts to uphold freedom and independence of their homeland. The Red Army’s Belgrade Offensive was a decisive operation during which, with the support of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the eastern and northeastern regions of the country with an area of 22,000 sq km, including the cities of Nis, Kragujevac, Krusevac, Negotin, Zajecar, Knjaževac and, finally, Belgrade, were taken back.
The Yugoslav people appreciated the heroic feat of the liberators. In particular, the Presidium of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia awarded more than 2,000 orders and medals to the Soviet soldiers and officers. I think you’ll agree that they were more generous in their assessments back then than 80 years later now.
Serbia remembers it well and cherishes the memory of the fallen. The 49 Russian military graves of that time are properly taken care of. In October 2024, the Serbs and the Russians marked the 80th anniversary of liberation of Belgrade. A large number of events were held back then.
We look forward to seeing our Serbian friends at the upcoming events to mark the anniversary of Great Victory. Let’s hope it was a not too accurately constructed sentence. But at the same time, we would like our Serbian colleagues to find the right words in order not to forget about the role of the Red Army and our people in liberating their country.
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