Zimbabwe supports Russia's approach to the special military operation in Ukraine and urges countries to move away from NATO expansion, the country's Defense and War Veterans Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said on Tuesday.
"We support Russia's territorial integrity, its holistic approach to the special military operation, and the protection of the Slavic population in the specified territories (Ukraine). We understand and agree that people [in Donbass] freely and openly voted for their future in the Russian Federation. We call on NATO to step back from expansion and we see that the UN does not look at the fact that many countries are under sanctions," she said during the international inter-party conference of the United Russia party entitled “Crucial Issues of International Security in the Conditions of Geopolitical Instability.”
She also added that in this context the lessons of Cuba and Zimbabwe could be recalled.
"We see that there are sanctions, but Western countries want to downplay the role of our country and Africa in general. They want to bring them towards the lack of free choice in political and economic freedoms. But we adhere to the UN Charter. We understand that using sanctions as a weapon, as a military influence on any country is illegal and must be lifted immediately," the defense minister stressed.
According to her, Western globalist players are trying to influence all countries socially and economically by reducing living standards and trying to plunge African countries into poverty, while shifting the blame to Russia and China.
"However, today we see that Russia is an indispensable balancer of the world, which resists global paranoia on an all-out spectrum based on the dominance of some and the humiliation of others," the defense chief said.
The minister also stressed that the collective security in Europe and around the world shows that Russia's actions in Ukraine shed light on the evidence that people in regions that are now experiencing "the greatest strain" from the special military operation were under the influence of “evil and dangerous actions on the part of the violators of European security.”
In this regard, she noted that Harare demands that all participants lift these "draconian measures" and waive sanctions.
"We are forced to see the double-standard, two-faced measures that Western countries are taking to interfere in the affairs of sovereign states. We welcome Russia's new policy, which shows us a new road map for geopolitical and economic solutions, including in regard to Africa," she concluded.
7 November 2022, 13:49 GMT