Petras Vaitiekunas: Before occupation of Crimea, Russia Positioned its Invasions as Internal Conflicts

While occupying the parts of territories of Moldova and Georgia, Russia made such an impression for the international community as if it were internal conflicts, not an external foreign aggression. To a large extent, this was due to speculations by the Kremlin on the victims of the conflict, this, however, did occur in the occupation of the Crimea.

This opinion was stated by former Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania (2006-2008) Petras Vaitiekunas during the 11^th Kyiv Security Forum in Kyiv.

“Abkhazia and Transnistria are also occupied by the Russian Federation, but the Kremlin managed to freeze these conflicts on Russian conditions. Given the civilian casualties, the Kremlin managed to present its aggression as internal conflicts in Georgia and Moldova, respectively. But this does not apply to Ukraine. Russia used to manage to make such a formula for the international community. But this was the case before the Crimea was occupied,” he stated.

According to P.Vaitiekunas, given the casualties among the civilians, the West and Europe could not support specifically any of the parties to the conflicts in the countries.

At the same time, the former head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Lithuania stressed that massive human rights violations took place in the Crimea, and this began after the occupation of the peninsula. “From the very beginning, when Russia invaded the Crimea, I was with my colleagues in the Crimea as a special representative of the EU. I saw how the Russian Federation was occupying the Crimea. And this was the first time I encountered such a violation of the rules. With the beginning of the hybrid war, I can testify, that these were the special units of the Russian army who grossly violated human rights and the humanitarian law,” he stressed.

In particular, P.Vaitiekunas pointed to the fact that Russian military forces had been surrounding the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using a ‘living shield’ of civilians – women and children. “For such actions Russia must be brought to the international court,” he believes.

Additionally, there were gross human rights violations during the fake referendum.

The former Foreign Minister of Lithuania expressed his belief that the international community should help Ukraine on two main directions – “to stop President Putin and to implement reforms”.

“The West and Europe should create a success story of around Russia. Russia does not create such stories. This would be a stimulus for Russians, after Putin’s rule is ended, of course,” he stated.

As is known, the 11^th Kyiv Security Forum is held in Kyiv on April 12-13, 2018.

More than 400 international and Ukrainian leaders, representatives of political, business and civil society communities from over 20 countries will discuss global security trends and challenges in contemporary international relations, as well as Ukraine’s importance for regional and European security and democracy.

The event is being held with the support of NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine, the German Marshall Fund, The Victor Pinchuk Foundation, The Royal Institute of International Relations, Chatham House (UK), and The Regional Representative Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Ukraine.

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The annual international event Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation Open Ukraine in 2007 as a platform for high-level discussions on the current issues in Europe and the Black Sea region. The Forum aims at increasing security cooperation between the EU and the Black Sea region, raising awareness about regional developments among key regional players, promoting the role of independent and non-governmental actors in setting the security agenda in Europe.