Speaking at the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday, the German ambassador told Council members: "We must realise that this was a Russian invasion, that Russian soldiers were directly involved in both the occupation of Minsk and the occupation of Donetsk."
Russian UN representative Vasily Nebenzya immediately jumped on the German envoy's slip of the tongue.
"My friend Christoph, it seems, had a Freudian slip, and said that Russia 'took Minsk' in 2015. Russia did take Berlin, I remember that; this was earlier. Before that we liberated Minsk," the envoy clarified, referring to the Soviet military efforts against Nazi Germany during World War II.
The Red Army freed Minsk on 3 July 1944, before continuing its advance westward toward the Nazi German capital of Berlin, taking that city on 2 May 1945 after two weeks of brutal fighting. Modern-day Belarus celebrates its independence day on 3 July, in honour of the Soviet operation which liberated the Belarusian capital in WWII.
"Intervention is your method, as we can see very well now with the example of a certain Latin American country," the Russian ambassador concluded, referring to the present crisis in Venezuela.
The talks led to a thirteen-point agreement aimed at ensuring an end to the fighting and broader autonomy for the Donbass Region. None of the protocol's political points have been implemented, with Kiev and the Donbass authorities blaming one other for the deadlock, but the agreements did ensure a shaky ceasefire in the region.
