Russia’s ambassador to Canada says he fully supports what he calls his country’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“I'm a patriot of my country, and I stand with my president and I stand with the troops on the ground,” Russian ambassador Oleg Stepanov said on CTV’s Question Period. “Me and my colleagues here at the embassy, we are 100 per cent confident that we stand on the right side of history.”
In a tense and wide-ranging interview with CTV Question Period host Evan Solomon, Stepanov flatly denied that his country is committing war crimes and targeting civilians in Ukraine, even going so far as asserting that Ukrainian forces themselves are responsible for the atrocities they’ve blamed on Russia.
“[The] Russian army only destroys the military facilities,” Stepanov falsely claimed. Despite images of shattered apartment buildings and hospitals, Stepanov also asserted that Russian efforts to protect civilians “is one of the reasons why this operation is [going] very slowly.”
Although Russian diplomats are accused of spreading disinformation and parroting propaganda, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has rejected calls to expel them from Canada, saying that such actions would trigger a similar move from Russia.
“We don’t want to be without resources in Moscow,” Trudeau told reporters on April 6.
Speaking on Question Period, Stepanov attempted to paint his country’s war as an act to protect “ethnic Russians” and support the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
“In the international law there are two principles: one principle of sovereignty, and the other one of self-determination,” Stepanov said. “We'll let the people of Ukraine to decide what they want.”
Watch CTV Question Period host Evan Solomon’s full interview with Russian Ambassador Oleg Stepanov at the top of this article.
With files from CTVNews.ca Writer Michael Lee.
