Russia’s Foreign Ministry has mobilized all of its diplomatic missions to intervene upon the government where they are based “to ensure the timely evacuation from the city of Kiev of the personnel of diplomatic and other missions, as well as civilians.” Included in the public announcement was not just a reference to Kiev, but specifically to “against decision-making centres.”
Tonight, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reviewed the recent developments, stemming from the public threat on May 4 by Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attack and disrupt the Kremlin’s annual Victory Day celebrations, on the occasion of the defeat of Nazi Germany. She underlined that, while they were aware that a faction in the West has been committed to neutralize anti-Nazi sentiment and rewrite history:
“However, the instinct for self-preservation should not fail them. We are not acting from a position of aggression; we are acting from a position of an inevitable response to aggression. This is how the statement issued by the [Russian] Defense Ministry on May 4 [to respond by hitting Kiev] and our subsequent steps should be interpreted. It must certainly not be hushed up. It must be taken very, very seriously.”
