Advertisement for the follow-up referendum in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk: “Forever with Russia!”
Photo: dpa
Moscow, Friday, 3 p.m. – this appointment in the Kremlin will be remembered. Mostly as a perfidious part of a crime of the century. That is the bloody continuation of Putin’s attack on Ukraine. Whatever is now being said in Moscow about the “referendums” in the four occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as well as Cherson and Zaporizhia – they were wrong. Ergo, everything that Putin and his vassals think they can deduce from it is null and void.
The 1975 Helsinki Treaty on Security and Co-operation in Europe must not be shaken. It requires renunciation of the threat or use of force. Borders are inviolable, and respect for the territorial integrity of all states is a basic requirement. Disputes are to be settled peacefully, interference in the affairs of others is taboo, human rights and freedoms are to be respected. The Kremlin is still mocking international law, deriding the UN Charter and violating national laws. The fact that hitherto tolerant partners like China, whose help Russia needs, is now losing patience shows that Putin has got stuck in his own delusion. He is gambling away his country’s future.
