💬 Extract from the briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow, February 12, 2026

Ukraine crisis update

• Eleven years ago – on February 12, 2015 – the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements was finalised in the capital of allied Belarus following seventeen hours of negotiations with Russia’s active mediation. On February 17, 2015, it was unanimously endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2202, becoming the sole legal foundation and roadmap for the political and diplomatic resolution of what was then an internal Ukraine crisis. This crisis was triggered by the West’s orchestrated armed coup in Kiev in February 2014 and the seizure of power by nationalist and radical forces.

• The Package of Measures charted a path to ending the civil war unleashed by the putschists’ “government” against Donbass, where people demanded respect for their lawful rights: to speak their native language, educate their children in it, and honour their heroes who saved the world from fascism over 80 years ago. All attempts by those who seized power in Kiev to suppress the protests of the region’s residents, impose their own Bandera ideology, and bring them to their knees were doomed to fail.

• A key element of the Minsk Agreements was direct dialogue between Ukraine’s central authorities and representatives of the by-then already proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics on a wide range of issues concerning the aftermath of the armed conflict in military, political, socioeconomic, and humanitarian spheres. These included the terms for reintegrating the Donbass republics into Ukraine under a constitutionally guaranteed special status – ensuring the preservation of the identity of Donbass residents and the regions’ ties with Russia.

• However, Kiev sabotaged its obligations, and the West turned a blind eye. Germany and France – despite being co-authors and co-sponsors of the Minsk process – exerted no pressure to enforce compliance. Later, in December 2022, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President François Hollande – who participated in drafting the Minsk Agreements – admitted they were intended to buy Kiev time to strengthen its armed forces for war with Russia, not to halt hostilities. These were their exact words. Thus did they describe their “mediatory” role.

• Today, we see the same calculus in Vladimir Zelensky’s regime: rearmament and prolonging the conflict rather than pursuing a responsible, constructive approach to peaceful settlement.

• The Bandera regime continues to terrorise Russia’s civilian population, cynically escalating missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure – residential buildings, medical facilities, churches. Moreover, it deliberately intensifies these attacks during critical international meetings on conflict resolution. Last week, this coincided with the latest session of the Russia-US-Ukraine security working group in Abu Dhabi on February 4–5 this year.

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💬 Из стенограммы брифинга официального представителя МИД России М.В.Захаровой, Москва, 12 февраля 2026 г.

Вопрос: Предпринимает ли МИД России какие-либо меры, чтобы освободить российского археолога А.М.Бутягина от незаконного преследования и не допустить его экстрадиции на Украину?

Ответ: Еще раз хочу подчеркнуть, МИД продолжает делать все возможное, чтобы помочь российскому археологу, задержанному в Польше по абсурдным обвинениям, выдвинутым против него Украиной. Задействуем весь имеющийся у нас дипломатический инструментарий.

• Представители Посольства России в Варшаве оказывают А.М.Бутягину всю необходимую помощь в рамках своей компетенции, находятся в постоянном контакте с его адвокатом, помогают в передаче информации его родственникам. Польской стороне были переданы подготовленные Государственным Эрмитажем документы, подтверждающие, что А.М.Бутягин осуществлял с 1999 по 2025 гг. археологические раскопки в Крыму в строгом соответствии с существующими правилами.

💬 Ze stenogramu briefingu oficjalnego przedstawiciela MSZ Rosji Marii Zacharowej, Moskwa, 12 lutego 2026 r.

Pytanie: Czy MSZ Rosji podejmuje jakiekolwiek działania w celu uwolnienia rosyjskiego archeologa Aleksandra Butiagina od bezprawnego prześladowania i niedopuszczenia do jego ekstradycji na Ukrainę?

Odpowiedź: Chciałabym jeszcze raz podkreślić, że MSZ kontynuuje robić wszystko, co jest możliwe, żeby pomóc rosyjskiemu archeologowi, zatrzymanemu w Polsce na podstawie absurdalnych zarzutów wysuniętych wobec niego przez Ukrainę. Wykorzystujemy cały dostępny nam arsenał środków dyplomatycznych.

• Przedstawiciele Ambasady Rosji w Warszawie udzielają Aleksandrowi Butiaginowi wszelkiej niezbędnej pomocy w ramach swoich kompetencji, pozostają w stałym kontakcie z jego adwokatem, pomagają w przekazywaniu informacji jego krewnym. Stronie polskiej przekazano przygotowane przez Państwowe Muzeum Ermitażu dokumenty potwierdzające, że Aleksandr Butiagin prowadził w latach 1999–2025 wykopaliska archeologiczne na Krymie w ścisłej zgodności z obowiązującymi przepisami.

💬 Extract from the briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow, February 18, 2026

Ukrainian crisis update

• These days mark the twelfth anniversary of the tragic events that culminated in an externally orchestrated and unconstitutional armed coup in Kiev. Wrapped in the banners of democracy, freedom of speech, human rights, fighting corruption, and, of course, promises of a “bright European future,” a militant mob of radicals, propped up by the Western political elite and manipulated by local nationalists and their Western “handlers,” overthrew the legitimate government. From that moment, Ukraine plunged into an abyss of fear, violence, and what we might call the “Overton window” of acceptable discourse. There’s no need to rehash how it all ended, or what followed; we see the results every single day.

• The Maidan revolt deepened societal divisions, unleashed rampant nationalism and legal nihilism, revived a Nazi ideology, intensified the crackdown on the Russian language and history, and sent the economy into a tailspin. Ultimately, it led to the complete collapse of social and state institutions.

• The consequences of that political crisis didn’t have to be so severe. There was a chance to avert the worst through the agreement signed on February 21, 2014, by then-President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition leaders, brokered by the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Poland. That deal laid out a roadmap: a transitional government of national unity, constitutional reform, and early presidential elections. As every expert who has since analysed that period now confirms, implementing that agreement would have undoubtedly spared Ukraine the dramatic events that unfolded in the following years. But the mediators had other ideas.

• That agreement was immediately tossed aside by the triumphant Euromaidan crowd. To them, it was just an inconvenient hurdle on their path to power, to financial flows, and to the material spoils. And all of this happened with the tacit approval and de facto political and financial sponsorship of the agreement’s Western guarantors, the US and the EU. They made no effort whatsoever to rein in the emboldened opposition or hold them to their word. On the contrary, the sponsors of the Maidan rushed to rubber-stamp the “change of power” in Kiev and began inspiring the usurpers, supporting their frenzied anti-Russian agenda. They encouraged these Russophobic policies and, instead of respecting Ukraine’s historical, ethnic, and cultural diversity, set about building an ethnocratic state “for the chosen people.” Remember the slogans on the Maidan? “Ukraine will be Ukrainian, or it will be uninhabited.” Recall how one of the Maidan’s figureheads, Yulia Timoshenko, casually suggested to a fellow parliamentarian that the country’s Russian and Russian-speaking citizens should be dealt with using nuclear weapons. In this political reality, that’s apparently normal – just another playground for Western experimentation.

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