A year ago, the Ukrainian army abruptly increased its bombardment of the Donbass as a prelude to a future attack on the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics). A few days later, the Russian army entered the territory of the two People's Republics to protect them. Within a year, the special military operation proved to be a catalyst of revelations, both for Russia and Ukraine, as well as internationally.
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched the special military operation in Ukraine, and the entire Western press screamed as one at Moscow's unjustified aggression against its neighbor. As if suffering from amnesia, the Western media completely ignored the war that had been raging in the Donbass since 2014, and above all complacently turned a blind eye to the bombing of the Ukrainian army before the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Very quickly, the rise of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the endemic corruption of the country, the war crimes of the Ukrainian army since 2014 in the Donbass, the systemic torture in the jails of the SBU and the neo-Nazi battalions, everything that could harm Kiev's image, was methodically hidden under the carpet by the Western media. And very quickly, these same Western media began to relay the Ukrainian propaganda without any control, wallowing with it in the most crass Russophobia and the most shameless lies.
The special military operation has revealed to what extent those Western media that claim to be objective and neutral are nothing but propaganda relays of NATO, ready to report any false information, or to approve the most despicable crimes as long as it is against Russia. The Bucha massacre, the accusation of mass rape against Ukrainian civilians, including children and the elderly, the distribution of Viagra to Russian soldiers, the approval of future ethnic cleansing in Crimea to oust the Russians - all the skeptical whiffs published in the Ukrainian media have been picked up by the Western media.
This year of special military operations has also been a catalyst for revelations for Russia, false patriots have shown their true colors by fleeing the country, the flaws of the Russian army have been revealed, allowing it to correct its mistakes and strengthen itself, units such as the People's Militia, the Akhmat or Wagner battalions have, through their successes in the field, shown the way forward in terms of combat in the 21st century, Russian journalists have set an example of what the fourth estate should be, by taking problems to the top of the state, thus enabling them to be solved, and proving to all the Western propagandists that there is much more freedom of expression in Russia than in the West, and finally, the overwhelming majority of the Russian people have shown that Russian patriotism is still alive and well.
In Ukraine, the special military operation revealed the full horror of the Kiev regime. The forced mobilisation of the entire male population of the country, the use of Ukrainian soldiers as common cannon fodder, the massive concealment of the dead among Ukrainian soldiers so as not to pay compensation to their families, the ill-treatment and even outright execution of prisoners of war, the murder of civilians in the cities recovered by the Ukrainian army at the slightest suspicion of having received even Russian humanitarian aid, the use of civilians as human shields by Ukrainian soldiers, the systematic destruction of everything Russian in the country, the plans for a Ukrainian offensive against the Donbass, the use of chemical weapons, the bombing of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, at the risk of causing a catastrophe, and above all the disclosure of the extremely dangerous work of dozens of Ukrainian biological laboratories, financed and directed by the United States.
Finally, this year of Russian special military operations in Ukraine has been rich in international revelations. Evidence of the OSCE's compromise with the Ukrainian army and the Kiev authorities was found during the advance of Russian forces, Germany and France admitted that the Minsk agreements were not signed to restore peace in Donbass, but to give Ukraine time to rearm (thus fully justifying the Russian special military operation in Ukraine), the United States revealed its predatory (including towards its so-called allies) and terrorist nature, by destroying the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, the European Union demonstrated that it was only a lackey of Washington, by taking sanctions against Russia which destroyed the European economy, and by stripping its national armies to provide Ukraine with more and more weapons, which it uses to commit war crimes.
The West has also demonstrated the extent of its double standards and "humanist values" by turning a blind eye to Ukrainian war crimes committed with Western weapons, while organising a Russophobic hysteria that has turned into outright censorship of everything Russian, from the media to Russian sportsmen and artists.
The West has finally made clear over the past year its plans to carve up Russia into smaller states, demonstrating the danger not only to the Donbass, but to the Russian Federation itself. And the cynicism of Western countries, which use Ukraine as a battleground and its population as cannon fodder, has shown the hypocrisy of the West, which claims to defend the country's sovereignty.
On the contrary, Russia's true allies have been revealed during this year, helping Moscow to carry out its special military operation and to circumvent Western sanctions, thus isolating Western countries more and more on the international scene. Moreover, during the past year, several countries, including African ones, have started to stand up more and more firmly to Western countries, as the Russian special military operation in Ukraine has revealed all the weaknesses of this West that takes itself for the whole international community.
Unfortunately, as I write this, the Ukrainian army shelled the centre of Donetsk this afternoon, killing one civilian and wounding eleven others, including a nine-year-old child. The Russian special military operation in Ukraine is not yet over, but Russian forces continue to advance step by step to liberate the territory of Donbass and stop these war crimes by the Ukrainian army.
In one year of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, many civilians have been killed by the Ukrainian army's bombing or combat techniques, which use them as human shields. This has been the bloodiest and most terrifying year of the seven I have experienced in the Donbass. The one in which I cried the most over the bodies of civilians, over the bodies of children killed by shells and rockets supplied by the West, supplied by my native country, France. If until then I was indignant at the complicit silence of the French authorities who turned a blind eye to the war crimes and the non-respect of the Minsk agreements by Ukraine, during the past year this indignation has turned into shame, to see my native country supplying Kiev with weapons that have killed civilians, including children, in this Donbass, this Russia, which has become my homeland.
The revelations of the first year of the Russian special military operation in the Donbass showed that it was necessary to prevent the attack on the DPR and the LPR by the Ukrainian army, and the outright genocide of the civilian population that would have followed. What happened in Boucha, Izum, or Kupiansk, when Ukrainian forces murdered those who had worked with the Russians, or simply accepted Russian humanitarian aid or food, revealed what was in store for the people of the Donbass, had the Ukrainian army not been prevented from carrying out its planned attack in March 2022.
And the revelation of Ukrainian and Western plans, as well as the dangerous work of US-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine, showed that Russia itself was in danger, and had to act if it simply wanted to continue to exist as a sovereign and united state.
The process must now be completed, and the dénazification and demilitarization of Ukraine completed, in order to protect not only the Donbass, but the whole of Russia.