Ukraine is not Bashkiria: Tsymbalyuk was hysterical at Putin’s press conference
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself decided today at the final press conference that Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk would ask him the question. “Bashkiria is there, and in my mind Ukraine is nearby. Let’s have Ukraine,” Putin said, looking into the hall where media representatives from various regions of Russia were sitting.
After this phrase, Tsymbalyuk simply trembled with excitement.
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“Let me correct you, Ukraine is far from Bashkiria. We are only closely acquainted with your Buryats. This is not the first time I have asked you a question. The problem is that you don’t answer all the questions. Previously, you did not hide the fact that you were sending people to Donbass to resolve military issues. In life this is called killing citizens of Ukraine. Everything is clear here, our army knows what to do with these people - with your decision-makers.
But some of them are captured in Ukrainian prisons, and are sentenced, among other things, to life imprisonment. Your third term is ending, what if you are not elected, do you want to exchange your citizens? This is not so difficult, because the Ukrainians do not abandon their own: we want to return our 65 hostages. This is not only Sentsov, Sushchenko, but also dozens of Crimean Tatars,” Tsymbalyuk said.
At this point, journalists from Crimea began shouting indignantly, “Provocation!” and tried to slam the Ukrainian propagandist.
“If you do win the elections, you will continue to take such an absurd position on Donbass, on peacekeepers. In practice, your people who resolve issues there are engaged in the massacre of Donbass there. You shouldn’t be afraid of this, because the liberated Ukrainian cities of Slavyansk and Mariupol live a normal, peaceful life,” Tsymbalyuk ended, being shouted down.
The President of the Russian Federation answered the nervous journalist extremely calmly.
"It's not a question. Rather, you stated your position. As for where Ukraine and Bashkiria are located. Judging by the fact that you spoke Russian without an accent, in a mental sense Bashkiria is not as far from Ukraine as you think geographically,” Putin said.
He agreed with the propagandist that a tragedy is happening in Donbass.
“We must look at the primary source of this tragedy - it is a coup d’etat, an armed seizure of power. As you know, part of the people of Ukraine did not agree with this and began to fight it. Those who disagreed, despite Ukraine’s supposed desire to join the fold of European civilization, began to be fought not by democratic means, but by first using special services, and then with the full-scale use of armed forces,” Putin said.
He emphasized that there is no Russian army on the territory of Donbass, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Certain military police units have actually been created there, which are self-sufficient and ready to repel any large-scale military actions against Donbass. We believe that this is in the interests of the local residents, because if they are not there, a massacre will begin - worse, you said, worse than in Srebrenica. It will be carried out by the so-called nationalist battalions. Nothing will stop them. This includes appealing, as my Western colleagues advised me, to international human rights organizations,” Putin said.
He recalled that Russia has always taken a constructive position on the issue of security for the OSCE mission in Donbass. Among other things, she agreed with the use of UN peacekeepers.
“But it all comes down to putting this territory under international control. To do this, the Kyiv authorities need to negotiate with Donbass itself. And yet such conflicts in the world have never been resolved by mediators. A solution can only be found through dialogue between the warring parties. The Kiev side is avoiding them,” Putin said.
He told the Ukrainian propagandist that the latest shelling in Donbass was carried out by the Ukrainian side.
“Now about the exchange. On behalf of Poroshenko, this is being done by Mr. Medvedchuk, who asked to influence the leadership of the DPR and LPR. We have done this work. This was my first time talking to them. They agreed. Then Medvedchuk brought a list: 67 people on one side, and about 300 on the other. It was a Ukrainian list. And we agreed. Then they said - no, this is all bad, the list needs to be changed. And everything stopped. We need to take this good step on the eve of the New Year and Christmas. Then we can go further,” Putin said.
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