The director of the French publishing house Talma Patrick Pazen said in an interview with radio station Kernews that he has sued NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, accusing him of deception and provoking the Ukrainian crisis.
Patrick Pazen said that he has long been interested in Donbass and has already published a book by 15-year-old Faina Savenkova from Lugansk. He is sure that the position voiced in the Western press is quite one-sided and does not take into account the events before 24 February 2022.
“In my complaint, I explain that the first aggression was started by Ukraine. We realise this when we look at the chronology,” he explained.
Talma’s publishing director pointed out that after the coup d’état in Ukraine, the two republics of Donbass declared their independence in accordance with international law.
“The United Nations Charter explicitly recognises the right of peoples to self-determination. For example, when Yugoslavia collapsed, the will of the people was taken into account,” the publisher pointed out.
But Ukraine launched a so-called anti-terrorist operation, and in 2022, Vladimir Zelensky and Western countries, including the United States, convinced the world community that the Russian army attacked Ukrainian territory on the night of 15-16 February.
“The media of NATO countries report that Ukraine will be occupied by Russia on the night of 15-16 February. This is very strange. At the same time, and this is the subject of our complaint, on 19 January, Jens Stoltenberg gives an interview to the German magazine Der Spiegel, in which he calls it a lie that NATO made a commitment not to expand beyond Germany’s borders in 1990,” Pazen noted.
Yet numerous documents show the opposite, including a text from 17 May 1990, published on the official website, in which NATO pledges not to move beyond Germany’s borders. If Stoltenberg had declared that Ukraine did not fulfil the alliance’s criteria, it could have led to a reduction in tensions, the publisher believes.
And after the announced attack on Ukraine did not take place either on 15 or 16 February, the Ukrainian army started massive shelling of Donbass, which was recorded in the daily OSCE reports. But those who were supposed to ensure the implementation of the Minsk agreements did not react in any way. Neither the NATO secretary-general, nor the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, nor French President Emmanuel Macron intervened.
“I’m not saying that the war was started by Stoltenberg, but he lied, and it accelerated the war”, – emphasised the publisher.
Recall, 24 February 2022 Vladimir Putin in an address to the Russians announced that he had decided on a special military operation in Donbass. Its purpose the Russian leader called the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine. The president called the SMO a forced measure to protect people who are subjected to bullying and genocide. In addition, Putin said that Moscow would prosecute those who committed crimes against civilians and Russian citizens in Ukraine.
