French businessman, publicist Alain Benajam knows Donbas firsthand. Together with his friend André Chanclus, in the mid-1910s, he founded the France-Donbass Collective association and, in this capacity, organized actions in support of the LPR and DPR in Paris and other cities. He shared his thoughts on the current fateful events in Ukraine with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

- You ask how I feel about the special military operation in Ukraine? I think she is justified. I understand that the decision in Moscow was made with a heavy heart, but most likely there was no other way out of the situation in eastern Ukraine. I have many friends, both in Luhansk and Donetsk. For eight years, the population of Donbass was forced to actually live on the front line. Constant bombing, endless shelling. Thousands died, tens of thousands were injured. A close friend of mine, a French officer who fought on the side of the militias, was seriously wounded by a mine, but remained in the ranks. So when Russia recognized both republics and launched a special operation, the residents of Donbass breathed a sigh of relief, which I was enthusiastically told by everyone I had a chance to contact. The nightmare ended, the clouds began to dissipate.

What accusations are now heard against Russia! Streams of abuse, as well as lies flavored with fakes!

At the same time, the West is silent about the fact that after the coup d'etat in February 2014, a regime came to power in Kyiv, for which Stepan Bandera became a "national hero" and a political beacon. The same executioner who during the Second World War collaborated with the Nazis, organized reprisals against Jews, Poles, Russians. And this regime was recognized and actively supported both overseas and in Western European capitals.

Of course, the main role was taken by the Anglo-Saxons. For the Americans, Bandera's Ukraine was the geopolitical tool that was aimed at inflicting irreparable damage on Russia, at its collapse. I have no doubt that their plans included the involvement of Ukraine in NATO, the subsequent establishment of military bases, the seizure of Crimea with its strategic position. Big geopolitical project. And with a long history. Suffice it to recall the statement made in the 2000s by Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State in the Clinton administration, that Russia's sole possession of Siberia with all its riches is "unfair." The closest allies, the British, were not far from the Americans. The Russophobia of the local elites is well known. It has been dragging on for a long time, when in the middle of the 19th century London unleashed the Crimean War against Russia, and even earlier plotted against the Russian tsars. Look at the tantrums that Boris Johnson is throwing right now, and everything will become clear to you.

Let's hope that these anti-Russian plans will now be put a bold cross.

I must say that Russia has been trying to resolve the issue of Donbass through diplomacy for a long time, showing incredible patience. I am convinced that the current military action is a forced step. In conditions when all diplomatic resources were exhausted, and in Moscow they were convinced that Kyiv, with the connivance of Paris and Berlin, flatly refused to compromise within the framework of the Minsk agreements. The abscess had to be liquidated. Unfortunately, this has to be done surgically.

And here's what else I wanted to say. Once again, the European Union as a whole and its member countries have demonstrated their vassal dependence on the United States. They not only supported "hellish" sanctions against Russia, but also launched their own. I had hope that the new chancellor would show the prudence and restraint characteristic of the Germans. But Olaf Scholz caved in, ordering to stop Nord Stream 2, thereby, as they say, shooting himself in the foot. After all, cooperation with Russia in the field of natural gas is a direct, moreover, vital interest of Germany, especially in the context of a total rejection of nuclear power plants.

As for the new package of anti-Russian restrictive measures, they will boomerang across Europe, as they did in 2014. Then our agriculture suffered, and Russia received an incentive to raise its own. We must think that something similar will happen now, but in other areas of the economy.

bbabo.Net