Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

18:02:02
17/02/2018

Maria Zakharova

Citizens of Ukraine! I appeal to you. You are being deceived every day! Every day you are lied to by Ukrainian officials, politicians, media!

Yesterday I published a photo of how Yulia Tymoshenko talked to the Russian ambassador in Germany while Pavel Klimkin held negotiations with Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich conference.

The “Fatherland” party immediately made the following statement.

“Representatives of the ‘Fatherland’ party urge the media to not succumb to the Kremlin’s provocations. The photos from the lobby of the Munich conference on safety published by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry are a staged provocation. This was stated by the press service of the ‘Fatherland’ party.”

“Yulia Tymoshenko and Grigory Nemirya were never familiar with the man who approached them on the sidelines of the conference. Representatives of ‘Fatherland’ at this moment were near the room where in 5 minutes the meeting with the European Commissioner for the European Neighborhood Policy and negotiations on the EU expansion Johannes Khan was supposed to begin,” it is said in the statement. The press service explained that all conferees have badges with their names on, however their positions and countries that they represent aren’t indicated on them.

“‘The photo with the representative of the aggressor country is a planned provocation. We appeal to the media to not take part in the Kremlin’s special operations. The press service of the party informs about the official meetings and negotiations that representatives of ‘Fatherland’ held in Munich in a timely manner, and will continue to do the same in the future,’ said the press service of ‘Fatherland'”.

And so, this is a lie: they communicated, and everyone photographed them: journalists, delegates, and so on There is also a video.

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The second lie is that they didn’t know who they were talking to. Sergey Nechayev in Russian and loudly, so even journalists heard, greeted them and asked if it is convenient for them to communicate with him when there are so many journalists around. Everyone smiled cutely, joked, coquetted, and when they saw the journalists they started to turn away from the lenses. But it was too late.

Why do they lie to you about such trifles? Because they lie to you all the time: they lie when they say that Russia is an aggressor, because there is no other explanation for the fact that they have squandered Ukraine.

Ukrainians, it is time to wake up – you are deceived every given day. That’s why Russian media isn’t allowed on the territory of Ukraine, that’s why fables are told about Russia, that’s why “Ukrainian bloggers” badmouth us and spread photos that were photoshopped – so that you, citizens of Ukraine, continue to live in the lies of your “political elite”.

There is no need to love us – love YOURSELF and your country, don’t allow them to further deceive you.