Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova: “One can only truly speak of Ukraine’s independence when the authorities in Kiev return to the roots of their own statehood, cease their neo-Nazi policy of eradicating all things Russian, and put an end to the egregious discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which serves millions of Ukrainians”

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
Photo: MFA

Comment by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the Ukraine crisis.

On August 24, Ukraine will observe its so-called independence day, coinciding with the anniversary of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, adopted on this day in 1991 by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. Today, it can be stated with conviction that the commemoration of this date is nothing less than a macabre dance on the bones of Ukrainians. The Kiev regime is vehemently perpetuating the genocide of its own people, endeavouring to obliterate their ethnic, linguistic, and spiritual identity. We must recall that it was on August 24, 2024, that Vladimir Zelensky enacted the “law” prohibiting the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The authentic origins of Ukrainian state independence should be traced back further, specifically to the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, adopted on July 16, 1990, by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. This document proclaimed Ukraine as an independent, sovereign state and also enshrined its neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status.

Our standpoint is that one can only truly speak of Ukraine’s independence when the authorities in Kiev return to the roots of their own statehood, cease their neo-Nazi policy of eradicating all things Russian, and put an end to the egregious discrimination against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which serves millions of Ukrainians.

Amid the efforts undertaken by Russia and the United States to find avenues to resolve the Ukraine crisis, Kiev persists in its terror against peaceful Russian civilians and its bombardment of our country’s civilian infrastructure.

In the past week, 156 Russian citizens have been affected by hostile UAV strikes; 15 of them were killed, including one child, and 141 were wounded, including 14 minors. We will highlight but a few instances of the atrocities committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

Belgorod Region. On August 14, the regional government building and other administrative facilities were repeatedly attacked by drones. From August 14 to 19, the AFU conducted mass drone raids on Belgorod and other residential areas – one person was killed and at least 35 were wounded, including three children. On August 19, a targeted UAV attack resulted in damage to the Church of the Protection of the Holy Mother of God in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka. A woman on the church grounds sustained shrapnel wounds. During these days, the total number of shelled locations exceeded 700.

Voronezh Region. On the night of August 17, the region was subjected to a mass drone attack. In the town of Liski, a trackman was injured by falling debris from a UAV shot down by air defences; power lines, a shop, and other structures were damaged. In Voronezh, a residential apartment block was damaged.

Donetsk People’s Republic. On the night of August 15, targeted attacks by the AFU using long-range weaponry on residential buildings in Donetsk resulted in the death of a woman born in 1952; a girl born in 2007, a woman born in 1975, and a man born in 1987 were wounded. A school building was damaged by a UAV strike. From shelling and a drone attack on the night of August 18 in Donetsk, a woman born in 1964 was killed, and a youth born in 2005 and a woman born in 1961 were injured. During the day, as a result of munitions detonating, three Emergencies Ministry employees who were extinguishing a fire and a man born in 1987 were wounded. Over the last week, 802 terrorist attacks by the AFU were thwarted across the region by electronic warfare systems.

Zaporozhye Region. In the early hours of August 15, a 46-year-old Orthodox priest and his two sons, aged 16 and 19, were injured in an FPV drone attack on a civilian car. On August 19, two women, born in 1953 and 1961, were injured when an enemy UAV hit a residential building in the village of Podgornoye.

Krasnodar Territory. On August 14, an enemy drone targeted a block of flats in Rostov-on-Don, injuring 15 civilians.

Kursk Region. On August 14, a Ukrainian drone struck a civilian car in the village of Svoboda, injuring a married couple; in the village of Zvannoye, a 75-year-old man was injured by a drone while riding a bicycle. In the early hours of August 15, a Ukrainian UAV attacked a tall residential building in Kursk, causing a fire – a woman died, and 17 people were injured. Residential buildings and a school were damaged. On August 16−17, enemy drone strikes on civilian vehicles in the Rylsk district left three civilians dead, including a 13-year-old teenager, and four injured. A 44-year-old civilian lost his foot after stepping on an explosive device in the Sudzhansky district.

Lugansk People’s Republic. On August 15, the enemy launched a series of drone strikes on a residential area of ​​Lisichansk, damaging several blocks of flats. Rescuers successfully evacuated residents from a nine-story building where a fire broke out. On August 17, one person was injured in a UAV attack on a civilian vehicle.

Kherson region. On August 13, three civilians were killed as a result of enemy shelling of local communities. On August 18, a woman born in 1949 was killed by a kamikaze drone in the village of Brilyovka.

On August 18−20, nine people were injured in the region, targeted by artillery and drones.

On August 15, a bone-chilling video surfaced online, filmed earlier by a reconnaissance drone. The footage depicted an AFU militant shooting a defenceless woman on a deserted road near Rodinskoye, DPR. After the act, the neo-Nazi assailant cynically rummaged through his victim’s belongings – likely for jewellery – before skulking off into the woods.

In total, since February 2022, Kiev terrorists have killed more than 7,000 Russian civilians, including 228 children, and wounded more than 16,000 people, including 986 children. Since the beginning of 2025, the Ukrainian armed forces have killed more than 530 Russians, including 15 children, and wounded more than 3,100, including 168 children. Not one of the Ukrainian Nazis’ war crimes will go unpunished. Every criminal will meet severe retribution on the battlefield – or, if they survive, face the fullest extent of the law.

Russian courts continue to issue verdicts to Ukrainian neo-Nazis and foreign mercenaries.

The following captured members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been sentenced to long imprisonments for the crimes committed in the Kursk Region against civilians and the Russian military: Alexander Derevyanko, Oleg Stovbun (sentenced to 17 years), Artur Singer, Alexey Levchenko, Sergey Golubnichenko, Vitaly Yershov, Mikhail Gorvat, Ivan Rumyantsev (16 years), Yury Konogray, Yevgeny Poltoratsky and Vladimir Serdyuk (15 years). Ivan Perepelitsa and Alexander Matviychuk, both captured in the DPR in December 2014, have been sentenced to 20 and 13 years, respectively. A total of 235 members of militant groups have been convicted for committing crimes in the Kursk Region.

Georgian mercenary Aleko Elisashvili has been sentenced to six years in absentia and put on the international wanted list.

The Russian Investigative Committee has identified a Ukrainian Armed Forces commander involved in the shelling of residential districts and crowded areas in Belgorod on December 30, 2023, and February 15, 2025, using Czech Vampire multiple-launch rocket systems that killed and injured civilians. His name is Andrey Fedichev. He has been indicted in absentia on terrorism charges and is currently on the wanted list.

The Kiev regime has made attempts to cast a shadow on Russia-US talks.

Ahead of the Alaska summit, an AI-generated video has become viral on Ukrainian social media showing Ukraine’s Chief of Foreign Intelligence Kirill Budanov killing Donald Trump in Alaska.

On August 17, Vladimir Zelensky signed yet another executive order on anti-Russia sanctions, this time against 39 individuals and 55 companies. On the same day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to attack on a nuclear facility in Desnogorsk, Smolensk Region. The aerial device was suppressed by radio electronic warfare equipment. On August 18, the enemy attacked the Druzhba oil pipeline in Russia that delivers oil to Hungary. In his sneering post on X, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga ‘advised’ Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto to refer his complaints to ‘his friends in Moscow.’

On August 18, the Federal Security Service of Russia thwarted the Ukrainian security service’s attempt to blow up the Crimean Bridge using a powerful detonating device concealed in a vehicle. The vehicle had made its way from Ukraine through several countries. The vehicle’s battery enclosure had been filled with 130 kg of Finnish-made foamy synthetic explosives. All individuals involved in transporting this ‘bomb on wheels’ have been detained. It is unlikely the terrorist attack could have been prepared without Zelensky’s knowledge. Apparently, this operation was among those approved following his meeting with Security Service of Ukraine Director Vasily Malyuk on August 6, as Zelensky posted on social media.

On August 18, Ukrainian Defence Minister Denis Shmygal announced on Ukrainian television the commencement of production of the Ukrainian long-range Flamingo cruise missile, adding that “the remaining information will be revealed in due course.” The Ukrainian terrorists clearly prepared this leak to coincide with Vladimir Zelensky’s meeting with Donald Trump. Military experts have noted the visual and technical similarity of the Flamingo to the FP-5 missile produced by the Milanion Group, a British-Emirati company. It was unveiled at the IDEX-2025 international defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi this February. There is nothing surprising in this coincidence. Ukraine has long been transformed into a testing ground for Western military developments. There are plenty of examples. These include the Glider type unmanned surface vessel based on British technology, the supposedly Ukrainian Lyuty UAV built on Western designs, and the German-upgraded Olkha multiple launch rocket system. Thus, British fingerprints are also behind the sabre-rattling of the Ukrainian Nazis with their Flamingo missiles.

The Kiev regime also secretly attempted, with co-financing from Germany, to implement a programme for the production of the Sapsan operational-tactical ballistic missile systems with a range of up to 700 kilometres for strikes deep into Russian territory, with NATO’s consent. These plans were thwarted by the joint efforts of the FSB and the Defence Ministry of Russia. The Ukrainian military industry facilities involved in the production of the Sapsans have been destroyed.

On August 13, 17, and 19, online meetings of the “coalition of the willing” were held, the last of which was combined with an EU summit conducted via video conference.

The discussions centred on security guarantees for Ukraine within the context of Donald Trump’s peace efforts. In their statements, members of the coalition once again recited their readiness to deploy a contingent of interveners to Ukraine following a ceasefire. Participants attempted to contest potential limitations on the size of the AFU and on Kiev’s military cooperation with third countries, voiced support for Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO, and pledged its further military build-up.

However, on the central topic promoted by Britain and France – the deployment of deterrent “guarantee forces” – they failed to show unanimity. Opposition was voiced, in particular, by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul. The latter stated in an interview with the Table.Media portal on August 18 that deploying additional soldiers to Ukraine, on top of the German brigade already stationed in Lithuania, would represent “too serious a burden for Germany.”

An irrational obsession with confronting Russia at the expense of European taxpayers was demonstrated once again on August 17 in Brussels by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a joint news conference with Zelensky. She promised that a 19th package of illegal anti-Russian sanctions would be adopted as early as the beginning of September and announced the continuation of European diplomatic and economic pressure on our country.

It would seem the primary competence of Euro-bureaucrats lies in ensuring ever new blows to the prosperity of Europeans in the name of deterring Russia.

The scandal surrounding the display of Nazi symbols at the Max Korzh concert in Warsaw on August 9 – an event that culminated in the deportation of 63 individuals, including 57 Ukrainians – had scarcely subsided when another incident emerged. On August 14, Polish political scientist Tomasz Maciejczuk reported that two 17-year-old Ukrainian radicals had been detained in Wroclaw for placing Bandera flags on monuments dedicated to the victims of the Volyn massacre, as well as on building facades in cities like Warsaw and Domostawa. These manifestations of neo-Nazism, far from being isolated cases, represent a logical consequence of Kiev’s consistent policy to glorify wartime collaborators and killers while rewriting history. Polish President Karol Nawrocki, in an August 13 interview with the Polsat television network, called for urgent legislative action to introduce criminal liability for displaying OUN-UPA symbols.

It is particularly significant that Poland, one of Ukraine’s most staunch “allies,” has now directly confronted Kiev’s policy of glorifying Bandera and his followers – a highly sensitive issue for Warsaw. These divisive narratives appear to have been imported alongside the UkroNazi fugitives who chose to avoid being used as cannon fodder at the front, yet who now seem intent on waging a war against the burial sites of the Volyn massacre victims.

Ukraine’s campaign against its historical heritage continues. In Odessa, UkroNazis defaced the “Pushkin’s Shadow” memorial silhouette on the sidewalk with paint and targeted the monument to Leonid Utyosov, a native of Odessa – a Soviet actor, singer, and conductor – by pouring paint into the statue’s eyes.

In several other communities (Klubovtsy in the Ivano-Frankovsk Region, Politsy, Sussk, Mizoch and Ivanichi in the Rovno Region), monuments honouring Soviet soldiers who died fighting the Wehrmacht, along with those dedicated to the victims of Bandera’s terror, have been dismantled. Even the Orders of the Patriotic War carved on monuments to liberator soldiers have been removed.

Ukrainian “children’s writer” Larisa Nitsoi, in an August 16 interview with Ukrainian television, threatened Russian-speaking children with violence from their Ukrainian-speaking counterparts – verbatim suggesting that they would “give Moscow-ised children a work-over.” This exemplifies the value framework fostered by the Kiev regime today.

In turn, Ukraine’s “language ombudsman,” Yelena Ivanovskaya – already notorious for her campaigns against the Russian language – was visibly agitated by reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had allegedly demanded that Kiev grant official status to the Russian language during his talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska. In a reactive Facebook post, she once again viciously assailed the language, labelling it “an instrument of imperial policy.” Such absurd fabrications ultimately reveal a deep-seated inferiority complex, one apparently instilled in activists like Ivanovskaya by Western propagandists and Ukrainian Nazis they have nurtured.

The above facts confirm the relevance of the special military operation goals to denazify and demilitarise Ukraine and eliminate the threats emanating from its territory. All of them will definitely be fulfilled.

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