Ukraine has repressed Russian-speaking people: Envoy

Russian ambassador Denis Alipov responded to one story (‘If you take a gun to culture, you kill human spirit’, July 4) in TOI ’s eight-part series on price of war and fight for peace. Excerpts:
The piece "If you take a gun to culture, you kill the human spirit" reflects a misunderstanding of causes and consequences of the ongoing conflict. Portrayal of the war as a 'self-inflicted wound for Russian society' is misreading events. Efforts to 'cancel Russia' have been central to policy in Kiev's regime that came to power following the 2014 coup. It has sought to marginalise Russian language, repress Russian-speaking population, dismantle monuments commemorating shared history, and persecute Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

An example is the 2019 law that established Ukrainian as the sole state language, effectively outlawing official multilingualism in a country where Russian is the native tongue for at least one-third of the population. This was followed by the national minorities (communities) law that curtailed rights/ freedoms of ethnic Russians - this even drew UN's criticism.

'Derussification' includes demolition of monuments to figures like Alexander Pushkin and Catherine the Great, and repression of Ukrainian Orthodox Church including a de facto ban on its activities, and attempts to seize the sacred Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a spiritual cornerstone in both countries.

It's imperative to confront Kiev and its international sponsors, who've played a role in provoking the deadliest conflict in Europe since WWII. Their campaign has shattered peace & stability and damaged culture, historical memory, and people-to-people relations. Indeed, "taking a gun to culture" does kill the human spirit. But it's Ukraine, not Russia, that led this assault -- Russia sought to stop it by force only after its words fell on deaf ears.