This is a reblog of the publication at the site of the Russian Foreign Ministry, with a condensed version of the article at the Telegram channel of the Russian Embassy in Guyana.

Letter to the media from Ambassador Andrey A. Pritsepov

The article was denied publication in Guyanese newspaper “Stabroek News” for political reasons.

Dear Editor,

It was not without interest I read the article “Ukraine in outreach to Guyana” from January 24, 2026 in Stabroek News and acknowledged editor-in-chief’s admiration for the Ukrainian flag as well as for focusing on in-depth analysis of the international events. It makes it easier to comment.

As I wrote before, I remain the strongest supporter of the Maxima by your President H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali stating that real diplomacy should be based only on truth and the facts. So here, I feel privileged to remind the readers about the truth and the facts on Ukraine.

1. Ukraine is ruled by a neo-fascist, corrupt and illegitimate ex-president. His presidential term expired on May 21, 2024 and according to chapter V of the Ukrainian constitution could not be prolonged. He came to power by promising peace to all Ukrainians and deceived them all by launching the bloodiest war in the history of modern Europe while being sponsored, encouraged and supplied by NATO. Europe spent more than 270 bln USD on Kiev in order to defeat Russia on the battlefield.

The war could have been stopped by Istanbul peace agreements in 2022, but UK ex-PM Johnson (according to the head of Ukrainian delegation David Arakhamia) prohibited the head of Kiev’s regime to sign them, insisting on “just go on fighting”. “Fighting to the last Ukrainian” was since the overall motto in Europe. Colossal toll of that decision has exceeded by far 1 mln Ukrainian military personnel of irreparable losses.

Ukrainian population dropped almost by half from 52 mln in 1991 during the Soviet times to 28 mln in 2025 by their own estimates. Adult men are either running away from their homeland or being haunted, beaten and forcibly recruited to fill up catastrophic shortages of “meat-power” at the frontlines.

2. It seems that this fatal trend for Ukraine is not the main concern for the ex-comic. He was namely born on January 25, 1978 in Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk region of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, neither being a Ukrainian either by origin, or by blood nor speaking Ukrainian as his native language.

That partly explains why he and his European sponsors are firmly against stopping the war. In their minds, the show must go on until Russia is defeated. European fascism (facts from history witness that the overall majority of European nations including UK royal family was supporting Hitler) is still alive. In his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 23, 2026, Zelensky tried to blame UK and other European countries for his failures. The fight on who is the loser and who should be responsible for all that goes on.

3. For several years now, we have been hearing the same old and false story about 19,000 (or even 20,000) children allegedly deported from Ukraine to Russia. For all these years, we have requested the Ukrainian side to provide us with lists of these unspecified children. In June 2025, during bilateral talks in Istanbul we finally received a list of 339 names. The process of verification has discovered that it contained several adults and others who never been to Russia, as well as children who never been missing or living with relatives in Europe. At the same time, the fact that many Ukrainian children were moved to European countries and became forcefully subject to human trade is a taboo theme in Europe as highlighted by a few parliamentarians (https://russiaun.ru/en/news/03122025).

We pay heartfelt tribute to the intermediaries – the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Holy See and the State of Qatar. They made it possible to succeed in reunification of missed children by returning 122 children to Ukraine and 29 children to Russia.

4. Russian retaliatory strikes against military targets and infrastructure in Ukraine are justified. We are not targeting civilians, destroying only military targets and energy infrastructure in response to indiscriminate attacks of the Ukrainian armed forces against the civilian population of Russia. Kiev has the officially declared aim of killing as many Russians as they could. To do so the neo-fascists even eradicated a crowded railway station and a rush-hour market (there are several videos of the missiles coming in from the Ukrainian direction) in predominantly Russian-speaking regions.

January 22, 2024, was declared a Day of Mourning in the city of Donetsk for the victims of a busy market and shopping area in Donetsk’s Tekstilshchik neighbourhood shelling by Ukrainian forces which killed 27 civilians and wounded 25 others, including two teenagers.

On New Year’s night from December 31, 2025, to January 1, 2026, a Ukrainian drone strike on a cafe and hotel complex in the village of Khorly in the Kherson region killed 29 people, including two minors. At least 50 people were injured.

January 24, 2026, a Ukrainian drone attacked an ambulance in the Kherson region killing three medical personnel who were rushing to save a critically ill patient.

5. All aspirations for closer trade and economic cooperation between Guyana and Ukraine are warmly apprehended. Though statistics claim that the “war-torn” country is deeply indebted and can hardly produce anything except for its military needs. Nevertheless, they can still ask for more money. Worth noting, that Ukraine’s water purification technologies are nothing but a legacy of the Soviet science completely depleted since the country’s independence.

6. Last but not least, some facts about infamous Ukrainian sunflower oil that overwhelmingly illustrates the mentality of its traders. In 2023, the European Commission implemented temporary restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products, including sunflower oil, to stabilize local markets due to an import glut. While the EU-wide ban expired in September 2023, certain countries like Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have maintained their national restrictions on specific Ukrainian products, including sunflower oil.

On January 23, 2026, Polish farmers staged some road-blocking actions at a border crossing with Ukraine, protesting against trucks carrying agricultural products from Ukraine entering their country. Some European reports have indicated potential contamination risks regarding Ukrainian sunflower oil, which could lead to tighter regulations or restrictions based on safety standards.

If Europe protests, and there are severe restrictions for safety in other parts of the world, where should Ukraine’s traders sell to?

Finally, if you ask me, I would be one of the staunchest advocates for “Free democratic Ukraine” outreach to Guyana, simply because Ukrainians are my brother nation, and I love Guyana. But, please, look at a wider picture of “Ukrainian presence”, and discover who is knocking at your door.