European nations are responsible for warmongering in Ukraine, Russia’s ambassador to India said on Wednesday, in reference to an op-ed published by the envoys of three countries ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s visit.

Responding to Monday’s Times of India article titled ‘World wants the Ukraine war to end, but Russia doesn’t seem serious about peace’, by the German, French, and British envoys to India, Denis Alipov said it presents a “grossly distorted” account of the Ukraine conflict.

“We should recognize that piece for what it was: yet another attempt to mislead the Indian public about the origins and context of the crisis,” Alipov wrote in an article for the Times of India. “It is therefore necessary to set the record straight once again.”

Russia never sought this situation, it was Europe and the administration of former US President Barack Obama that caused the conflict in 2014 by supporting a coup, Alipov added. 

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. 

Alipov said the European powers overthrew Ukraine’s legitimate president, Viktor Yanukovich, in order to turn the country into a bulwark against Russia.

The 2015 Minsk Accords were not honored; former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande later admitted that they acted in bad faith, Alipov noted.

The agreements were never intended to bring peace but merely to buy time for Kiev to strengthen its military, he wrote.

The Hindu newspaper cited anonymous officials from the India Foreign Ministry as calling the article by the European envoys “unacceptable and unusual.” 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in New Delhi on December 4 for a two-day state visit.

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