💬 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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