The online conference of Ukraine’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba with Central Asian journalists took place on September 7, 2022.
Kyrgyz journalist Adil Turdukulov asked Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba about the indifferent attitude (“our authorities pretend it does not concern them”) of Central Asian leaders toward the war in Ukraine and its consequences.
Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba:
We sometimes intercept conversations between Russian soldiers and their relatives in Russia, and yesterday I watched a short interview with the father of a Russian soldier who was killed in Ukraine. The father himself enlisted (in the Russian army — Yep.uz), came for two months, fought, then returned home. And he told a Russian journalist that in a house that had been bombed, or in an apartment, they found a photo album of a Ukrainian family. He flipped through it and said: “Who are we fighting here? They are just like us. There are no fascists or Nazis there.”
One Russian soldier called his mother — this was an intercepted phone call — and said that when they entered, all the monuments to the heroes of World War II, the Great Patriotic War, were well maintained and standing. He did not see a single fascist or Nazi on the street, and he wonders, does not understand how this can be — they had been told everything so convincingly.
And there are other examples — when a soldier says something similar to his mother, and she replies: “You will definitely meet them, I saw it on TV, they are just somewhere else — all those fascists and Nazis, we were told. Putin is not mistaken. You are all doing the right thing there — a good deed.”
Indeed, when reality collides with propaganda, the gap is immediate.But for that to happen, one has to come face to face with reality.
And of course, let’s be frank: both Ukraine and your countries face the problem of large-scale labor migration. Compare this — I am sure you know this well — has any representative of the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek, or Tajik diaspora in Ukraine ever faced systemic xenophobia? No. Humiliation?
And what happens to your own citizens in Russia? How are they treated and what are they called? But this is all well known. You do not even need to watch TV. These stories are passed by word of mouth. And if such is the attitude — Russia as a state, no matter what anyone diplomatically says, does not respect either us or you — neither as states nor as people — then why does President Vladimir Putin remain acceptable in Central Asia? (here and hereafter highlighted by Yep.uz)
Because it is obvious that your leaders, your governments understand that Russia is a threat, not a friend, and that one must behave with it as cautiously as possible.
I have no moral right to give instructions on how any country should build relations with Russia. But I can calmly, with full moral right, say that the first thing to do to protect your national interest is to cast aside fear of Russia. We have gone through this path — it is very painful, but we must all understand this. I hope you understand it as well: as soon as Russia has the first opportunity to destroy your state — as it tried to destroy ours — it will take it.
They also believe that you are artificial entities. Everything that Putin says about Ukraine, tomorrow he may begin to say in exactly the same way about you. In Kazakhstan — you know what processes Russia is trying to stir up there. In Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. Your nations, with millennia-old cultures, where you had centers of science and philosophy when Moscow was still an impassable forest — none of this matters to them. Therefore, do not let Russia weaken you and do not let Russia use you.
We are fully aware of all attempts by the Russian Federation to establish mechanisms to circumvent sanctions, including through Central Asian countries. And we are working with your governments — both Ukraine independently and Ukraine with partners — to ensure that under no circumstances do you fall for this trick, so that Russia does not simply use you. Because the mechanism of sanctions pressure on Russia for its crimes that has been deployed will only intensify. And I can tell you frankly that we are now placing special emphasis not only on introducing new sanctions, but also on tightening control over their circumvention.
Look, even Chinese companies — all reputable Chinese companies — do not do business with Russia, because they understand that they could fall under sanctions and lose much more. In this area, one must be very cautious and understand that whatever the potential benefit from helping Russia bypass sanctions may look like, the losses from the measures that will be taken in response will be far greater.
I am not claiming now that any of your countries is already helping Russia bypass sanctions, although we know examples. As recently, Ksenia Sobchak exposed Kyrgyzstan, writing that she paid somewhere — in Paris, I think — with a Kyrgyz bank card. We know all this, see it, understand the alignments, who owns the banks, who stands behind it, what the government’s position is — in great detail. In each country, we work together with partners and leading financial intelligence agencies of the world to track who is helping, how, and where. So simply do not allow Russians to use you — that is the only thing I can wish.
And of course, it is better not to shake his hand, because it is literally, not metaphorically, but literally covered in blood. But that is everyone’s personal choice.
This material is part of a series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4