Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov called on the Turkic Bashkir ethnic group, which makes up almost a third of the population of the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan (Bashkiria), to rise up against Moscow and President Vladimir Putin, Ukrinform reports.
He did this in an open letter, which he published on his Facebook page in Ukrainian and Bashkir languages.
“When I served in the army, one of my best friends was a Bashkir. Recently, I reviewed the data on the losses of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine and noticed that among the regions of the Russian Federation, one of the most affected by losses is the Republic of Bashkortostan. Thousands of people from Bashkiria died or were maimed,” Reznikov wrote.
“The situation shocked me with its absurdity and prompted me to write a letter to my friend, the entire Bashkir people and their true leaders,” the Ukrainian official added, also accusing the authorities, who now rule Bashkiria from the regional capital of Ufa, of sending people to their deaths for personal interests to to please the Kremlin.
“The Republic of Bashkortostan has huge natural resources and a developed industry. Everything is here to ensure a high level of well-being. The main interest of the Bashkirs is obvious – to ensure national development in their own home, including through the realization of the right to self-determination and the fair distribution of significant resources for the benefit of the region,” Reznikov emphasized.
He called on the Bashkirs to concentrate “all their efforts” inside Bashkiria in order to defend themselves from Moscow.
Oleksiy Reznikov says that the “servants of the Kremlin” are sending Bashkirs to die in Ukraine
“If we list the problems and threats for the Bashkir people, neither Ukraine nor Ukrainians are the cause of any of them. The roots of all reasons are in Moscow and Ufa. Instead, a Bashkir is sent to die a thousand kilometers away for unknown reasons,” wrote the Minister of Defense of Ukraine.
“No one, except the Kremlin and its supporters, is interested in this,” he emphasized, adding that this situation should end as soon as possible.
His comments came after soldiers from the Russian Volunteer Corps (RWC), a paramilitary organization made up of Russians opposed to Vladimir Putin, said a day earlier that they had crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border for the third time.
On Tuesday morning, the Russian governor announced that the “anti-terrorist” operation to repel them was continuing, but the Russian Defense Ministry later said that it had ended and that all the “saboteurs” had been driven across the border.
One of Oleksiy Reznikov’s advisers, Yuriy Sak, told Ukrinform that the incident in the Belgorod region is not the last case of mutiny within Russia.
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Source: Hot News
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