Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Monday supported his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the unilateral recognition of the pro-Russian separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk (eastern Ukraine), although he did not add Nicaragua to that initiative.
“President Putin has taken a step today, where what he has done is to recognize some republics that, since the coup in 2014, did not recognize the coup governments (in Ukraine) and they established their government and have fought “, said Ortega, in an official act in which he paid tribute to the Nicaraguan hero Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, known as Sandino, on the 88th anniversary of his assassination.
During his speech, the Sandinista leader pointed out that what Putin has done “is to recognize those governments, because they have their governments” and that these are two provinces bordering Russia that have resisted “the aggressiveness of the Ukrainian army.”
“Logically,” Ortega added, this unilateral recognition of these separatist territories “brings (Russian) military support so that these governments have their security.”
“In the end Russia took this step and it is a step that hopefully creates the conditions for an understanding there, because what Russia asks for is security and that security can be achieved based on agreements that already existed and that the Europeans and the United States,” he said.
According to Ortega, the European Union (EU) and the United States “have been encircling and threatening Russia” since 2014.
“I hope the European countries and the United States understand that this is the time to seek an understanding, a firm agreement, that gives Russia security,” he continued.
In Ortega’s opinion, “this decision taken today by President Putin opens the possibility that this situation will not have a major outcome, because they are using Ukraine to provoke Russia.”
“Ukraine is looking for a way to get into NATO, and if it gets into NATO it is to say: we are going to war with Russia and that explains why Russia is acting the way it is, it is simply defending itself,” he said.
That is the reason, he said, for Putin to recognize “those provinces, which are provinces that are populated by Russian citizens.”
“I’m sure that if they put it to an election or a referendum there, like the one they did in Crimea, I’m sure people will vote to join Russia, and return the situation to the way it was before the fall of the Soviet Union.” , he added.
Ortega pleaded that God “enlighten the minds of the leaders of the United States, of President (Joe) Biden, who will be listening to many proposals.” “There will be more than one crazy person who will tell you: let’s drop some atomic bombs on the Russians, and the Russians also have atomic bombs,” he said.
“I hope they reason and do not cause a catastrophe on planet Earth,” he concluded.
Putin recognized on Monday the independence of the self-proclaimed separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, and decreed the deployment of soldiers to those territories, which has triggered international rejection and the announcement of sanctions.
Ukraine has already announced that it continues to consider the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists, as part of its territory.