Ukraine responds to scandalous statement about Crimea and Bucha

Latvian portal Delfi reported on the situation.

Elksniņš said that there will be no winners in the war between Russia and Ukraine and that this war is a human tragedy.

"There is a war going on in Ukraine - that is clear and self-evident, Russia is not at war on the territory of its own country - that is also clear and self-evident," he answered the question of who is the aggressor in the invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, the mayor of Daugavpils called Crimea a part of the Russian Federation. To the objection that the world does not recognize the occupation of the peninsula, the Latvian politician said that the world continued to cooperate with Russia despite that fact.

Elksniņš blamed the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States for the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Kyiv region.

“Everyone is responsible for the events and the situation, and first of all diplomats, because when diplomats lose in diplomacy, then the army takes action. It has always been so. And in this situation it is a loss of diplomacy that has happened,” the politician answered when asked why he blames Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reacted to the Latvian politician's statement.

"The mayor of the Latvian city of Daugavpils, Andrejs Elksniņš, justifies Russia's crimes in Ukraine. It is not surprising that his political power ended up on the sidelines of Latvian politics following the results of the last elections to the Latvian Saeima," spokesman of Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oleh Nikolenko, wrote on Facebook.

"Fortunately, the statements of this marginal figure reflect neither the official position of Latvia, a friendly state to Ukraine, nor the views of the absolute majority of Latvians, who not only sincerely sympathize, but also actively help Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression," he added.

Andrejs Elksniņš is a representative of the social democratic party Saskaņa (Consent), which traditionally had significant support among Russian-speaking residents of Latvia and only failed to overcome the 5% barrier in the last elections to the Saeimain the fall of 2022.