The Russian ambassador in Cairo made exclusive statements to Al-Bawaba News about the Russian-Ukrainian war

·    The war was started by Ukraine 8 years ago, they killed civilians and attacked the Russians.

·    The United States is using Ukraine to harm Russia and threaten its national security.

·    We asked for guarantees from NATO not to extend its forces to the east, but it refused.

·    NATO's intention is to threaten Russia's security and make Ukraine a storehouse for Western weapons, equipment, and soldiers.

·    We will not allow our nation to be threatened, and we will defend our national security

·    We are ready to sit at the negotiating table, but America eludes.

·    The decision of the President of Ukraine is not in his hands, but in the hands of other capitals, like Washington and London

Two days ago, specifically at dawn last Friday, Russian forces targeted all of Ukraine's military and intelligence infrastructure.

Russian military operation is an attempt to paralyze Ukraine's resistance capabilities as all the diplomatic solutions to the crisis were complicated.

  Immediately, NATO imposed a package of sanctions on Russia as a respond to the militarily intervene in Ukraine.

Putin had asked Ukraine and NATO to pledge that Ukraine would not join the alliance, which Putin considers an explicit threat to Russia's national security.

NATO accuses Putin of violating international law, attacking a neighboring country and targeting its civilians.

Putin, in turn, accused NATO of trying to threaten Russian national security by providing an arsenal of weapons to Ukraine that represent an existential threat to Moscow.

Amid the torrent of accusations, the world is waiting, holding its breath, for what the coming days will bring.

Will Putin, who is encircling Kiev, invade the city, as happened in 2014 in Crimea, or will the two sides sit at the negotiating table?

We asked Mr. Georgy Borisenko, the Russian ambassador in Cairo, all these questions.

Why has the crisis erupted now between Russia and Ukraine?

Let me clarify a number of points at the beginning.. The story began a long time ago when the Ukrainian government started waging war on the Russians in a province called the Donbass in the eastern part of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army killed and displaced thousands of Russians in that spot and this tragic situation lasted for eight Years in complete silence from what they call themselves the free world.. Rather, this was done with the help and full support of Western countries. So the Russian intervention was important to protect the lives of these people first and to protect Russian national security. Because this Ukrainian government has become a danger not only to the Russians who live in Ukraine, but to our nation. President Zelensky announced a week ago that his country is on its way to acquiring nuclear weapons, and this is a great danger to Russia's national security.

Ukraine already had a large share of the nuclear weapons of the old Soviet Union and returned it completely to Russia as what mentioned  in the Budapest Agreement in 1994, so why a nuclear weapons in Ukraine would pose a threat to Russia?

The Soviet Union was the one who possessed nuclear weapons, but when Ukraine separated in 1991 from the Soviet Union after its dismantling, a large part of the nuclear weapons were located in Ukraine. In 1994, by the Budapest Agreement, Ukraine sent all the nuclear weapons it possessed to Russia again, but recently Zelensky announced that he intends to restore nuclear weapons again and threatened Russia, so yesterday the Russian forces surrounded the Chernobyl nuclear reactor plant in the north of Kiev because it was clear to us that Ukraine was proposing to carry out a terrorist attack and was doing radioactivity in this region in order to make a nuclear bomb for use against Russia, and for this reason, the Russian forces took control of this area, where the Chernobyl station in Kiev is located

 Russia said that it does not attack civilians, on the other hand, Ukraine declared that Russia targets civilians?

Zelensky said today that Russia attacking Kiev with missiles, but it is a lie. This was a Ukrainian helicopter that was bombed and destroyed by the Ukrainian air defense, and it was not a missile or a Russian helicopter.

Russia did not target any Ukrainian city, and the attack only targets the military facility outside the cities, such as explosives stores and some military bases outside Kiev. there is no picture that proves that there is a destruction of Ukrainian cities by Russian forces, and if you see some pictures or videos, they are False by the American media from old wars and conflicts between other countries, but it is lies of the Ukrainian media, and not only, but also CNN, American politicians and other media from Western countries

 Is the American media spreading lies about targets civilians, and that what was published are old videos?

America is the empress of lies, there are many lies Russia and the Russian military operation. Russia does not bomb the Ukrainians or the Ukrainian cities, but the Russian soldiers are fighting for their country until they liberate the Ukrainians from the Nazis who have ruled them for eight years with the full support of the United States of America.

What is the story of the two cities, Donetsk and Luhansk?

These two provinces are called the Dombas region, and these two cities do not support Kiev, and they do not support or agree to the agreement that was made by the nationalists in Kiev and which was supported by the West in February 2014.

The first decision was made by the nationalists who took power in Ukraine in 2014 is Prohibition of the Russian language in Ukraine.. The residents of these two regions do not agree with the decisions of the nationalists and declared their complete independence in May 2014, and most of these cities held a referendum on their independence and declared themselves cities under Autonomy.

During the past eight years, Russia has been trying to find a political solution so that these areas remain inside Ukraine, but the Ukrainian regime has been bombing these areas since 2014 and in 2015 the President of Ukraine signed an agreement according to which the constitution would be amended and these areas would be granted autonomy and the decision was to be taken At the end of 2015, but nothing like that happened, and it was known at the time that the Minsk Agreement, which failed and the nationalists of the Ukrainians in Dombas were not given their right until now, and this agreement was not signed by Ukrainian system

What is your comment on what the Russian president said today that he is ready to sit at the negotiating table with the Ukrainian president?

The Kremlin stated that it is ready for discussion and dialogue with Ukrainian President Zelensky, because he is the one who said this morning that Kiev is ready to talk about an agreement. If this happens, Russia is ready for discussion, but what we see so far is that the Ukrainian forces are in conflict and fighting the Russian forces, and there is still bombing and war in the Donbas region against the pro-Moscow Ukrainians there.

Do you think that the Ukrainian president wants to return to the negotiating table now after the European countries have abandoned him and made him fight his battle alone?

It is difficult to determine what the Ukrainian president is thinking now, but everyone sees that he is not self-reliant. There are many countries that interfere in his country's internal affairs, such as Washington, London and many European countries. What I think is that he is listening to the directions of the United States, but Washington does not want him to return to the negotiating table with Russia to achieve peace with Moscow.. The United States is using Ukraine against Russia..

 In your opinion, why Ukraine? Why would the US want to use Ukraine as a weapon against Russia? Does Washington have interests in Ukraine?

No.. they do not care about Ukraine at all.. all their interest is focused on using it against Russia. They do not like Russia because it does not adopt their policies and Moscow does not listen to instructions from Washington.. Add to this the desire of the United States for global hegemony, and of course they will not be able to do so in light of There is a clear influence of Russia and that is exactly why they are using Kiev to harm us.. They do not care at all about Ukraine and the Ukrainians..

Do you really think that Ukraine, whose army ranks 22nd in the world, is a potential threat to Russia, which ranks second? Many people do not agree with what President Putin said that Ukraine is a threat to Russia, and what he has done is an invasion of a neighboring country, what do you think of that?

I think that Ukraine in itself is not a problem, the main problem for us is the security of Russia.. The United States wants to include Ukraine in NATO, the United States wants to besiege Russia with this, and place its missiles and NATO equipment on Ukrainian territory, after that the United States will need only 4 to 5 minutes to reach the heart of Moscow from the eastern Ukrainian side... We want from the United States guarantees not to extend NATO forces to the east, and not to include Ukraine in NATO... and not to place any armies and military equipment on Ukrainian territory if there is no Ukraine's annexation of NATO.. and they refused to give any of those guarantees..this represents a red line for Russia.. for Russia, this is a real threat and legitimate fears.

Do you think that giving the United States those guarantees to Russia will stop the invasion?

I cannot guess, The United States does not want to return to negotiations at all, the United States did not and will not want to enter negotiations with us, so we need to secure our homeland and our nation

When will this invasion stop? What exactly is Moscow seeking to stop the war?

We must see the de-militarization of Ukraine.. Kiev must not host any weapons, soldiers and military equipment of Western armies on its soil.

There must be guarantees that no military equipment will be sent to Ukraine.

No troops should be deployed on the Ukrainian lands, then peace will prevail and there will be no need for war.