 So, if you have any problems with the translation, because we will speak English, so my colleague Alex will help you with translation. We will also like to draw your attention to these blue folders. This is also very important, so they contain some material, substantial material as well as statistics, which has proved by effect. You see, taking a seat, about to begin the press conference, a statement by the Russian Ambassador Anatoli Viktorov and then questions by the representatives of the Israeli press. This is about to begin. So, to ask a question, please raise your hand and introduce yourself. Thank you. So, welcome to the press. Agreed? Agreed? The format is agreed. Okay, thank you. And President Putin and Minister Lavrov, these days for many times addressed publicly to the world audience, to the leaders of our partners, to representatives of media, and a few minutes ago, Minister Lavrov completed his video interview to many, many mass media throughout the world. I'm a difficult task to compete with my minister, but I'm just drawing your attention that you can find many answers by him to the questions of world journalists. Nevertheless, thank you for coming. Once again, we see this event as an opportunity providing us to further clarify the Russian position regarding the current situation in and around Ukraine in order to try to avoid any further misunderstandings and misinterpretations. This is important, by the way. I was trying to avoid this criticism against mass media, but I cannot because nowadays all of us are witnessing an unprecedented wave of lies, fake news, and distorted facts which are mainly aimed at presenting Russia's actions as monstrous, undermining this policy, I mean the world media, undermining the decisions and policy of our president and incitement to hatred towards Russia and Russian people all over the world. There are many facts related to this, and I cannot avoid mentioning this. There is a psychological situation, if not a mainstream point of view is presented, it is called as propaganda right away. However, unfortunately, these people who are scoring a different point of view as propaganda do not seem to understand that they themselves have become a hostage of a large-scale information. I would add that this information war waged by the West a long ago. It is taken, this war is taking its climax nowadays, at least our culmination to be more clear. At least the very fact that Russian media is being totally banned in Ukraine and Western countries is the evidence. And we know about the same appeals made by the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel to ban Russian media broadcasting here in Israel. In the country where with 2 million Russian-speaking population, all these deliberate and unfriendly actions have the other side of the medal. Let me mention the recent case of alleged Babiyar Memorial in Kiev allegedly once again bombing by Russian military, and this case shows that, shows and proves how long some people could fall in order to achieve their goals by all means. And of course, once again, this was a fake news. There are no damages to the memorial, but based on this fake news, the president of Ukraine appealed to the Jews of the world. Using very strong words and misusing the fake news. Taking this into account, it is utterly important to reveal the following points, and to remind the following points. Russia continues its special military operation to demilitarize the Nazi Ukraine to protect the people of Donbass, as well as the people of the Russian Federation from the military threat posed by NATO countries that are trying to use Ukrainian territory to create a foothold against our country. Once again, this operation should not be considered as the beginning of the war. But as its end of the war and prevention of global escalation. It should be understood that the current situation is complex and has its deep historical and political roots. I will try to touch upon a few of these points. First, it is not our plan, by the way, it deserves to be underlined, to occupy the territory of Ukraine, the Ukrainian territory. The current events have nothing to do with the desire or to infringe on the interests of Ukraine as a state or the Ukrainian people. They are connected with the defending Russia's national interests from those who have taken our neighboring country hostage and are trying to use it against us and our people. Furthermore, one of the main goals of the current operation is restoration of the sovereignty of Ukraine. As for many years now, it has been actually managed externally and the Kiev regime consistently pursued the policy of disorganization of its country. It is a fact based on irrefutable evidence but kept in the shadow as an inconvenient. And Russia cannot watch how people march in torchlight processions under fascists and no Nazi flags in the modern world. In this context, everyone seems to forget anti-constitutional coup in Kiev when in February 2014 with the support of the West, the legally elected president of the country was overthrown. After that, new nationalist authorities immediately restricted the rights of citizens to use the Russian language. This gave rise to a huge chain of violence of the basic rights of the inhabitants of the east of the country, including the most valuable thing, the right to live, to life. And today, no one wants to hear anything about the tragedy that began in Ukraine after the Maidan coup nor about people burned alive in Odessa back in May 2014 about the persecution and killing of dissenters. The most striking manifestation of this was the genocide unleashed by Kiev against the Donbas. Let me only say that we regret even today when we discussed the humanitarian situation in Ukraine no one utteres a word about the people of Donbas. All sufferings whose sufferings have been lasted for eight years and everyone may at least choose to ignore. Third, all events which the work has been witnessing in the recent month, years and even decades constitute just a part of Western, primarily the United States policy of containing Russia politically and economically for certain geopolitical divisions. Issue of you can look back and see that throughout the years on all levels we have been openly seeking, speaking, sorry, about NATO's eastward expansion and the ongoing efforts to gain a military foothold of the Ukrainian territory. It was clearly stated that such actions are unacceptable for Russia. For our country it is a matter of life and death, a matter of our historical future as a nation. This is a direct threat not only to our interests but to the very existence of our state. It is the red line which have been crossed. Even back in 2008 the Russian NATO summit in Bucharest, President Putin warned that NATO states should think twice before making both full record that Ukraine and Georgia would be in NATO. Last December, December 2021, when the situation heated up, the collective West did not make even one true attempt to understand Russia's security concerns and to take real diplomatic measures but continued to flood Ukraine with weapons while blaming Russia. Focused on their own goals, the leading NATO countries, let's say directly the United States of America, there are no other leading countries at that block, have been supporting the far-right nationalists and non-Nazis in Ukraine. We warned about these sentiments again openly. Russia cannot feel safe development exists while facing a permanent threat from the territory of today's Ukraine. The showdown between Russia and these forces could not be avoided. It was just a matter of time. This should be understood once again. And above all, in today's difficult circumstances, the situation on the ground in presentation of by the West officials and media is totally turned upside down. Let me make myself clear. The armed forces of the Russian Federation pose no threat to the Ukrainian peaceful citizens, to the civilians. They do not fire at the peaceful facilities. All Ukrainian servicemen are treated with their respect and assistance. Crimes against humanity violations of international humanitarian law are committed by the armed forces of Ukraine and such known Nazi groups as Batarian Azov, the organization called right sector prohibited in Russia, by the way, and others. Ukrainian nationalists, in fact, hold them as hostages and use as a human shield. There is numerous, numerous evidence provided by ordinary Ukrainian, Ukrainians themselves, which confirmed that nationalists, despite people's protests, deploy heavy weapons, military equipment, and multiple rocket launchers in residential quarters, residential areas, civilian areas. Another thing that threatens the people of Ukraine is uncontrolled distribution of weapons by radicals and the authorities to all those who are ready to have them, including criminals that have been released from prisons. Those guns already shoot in the hands of burglars and plunderers. This demonstrates the irresponsible approach of the Ukrainian authorities to the citizens, if not unleashing terror against their own citizens. Let me stress that talking all this into account, Russia agreed to negotiations. We want to live in peace with the brother people of Ukraine, to prevent the dark pages of the past from being repeated, and most important, to defeat our national interests. Thank you very much. I am open to the questions, trying to answer them. And you are? Can you tell us more details about the phone call between President Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Prime Minister Bennett, sorry, a habit? It's Mr. Freund who is taking power, okay? Can you tell us more about it? I was not listening. I did not have this possibility to listen to the conversation. What I know, it was at the initiative of the Israeli side. President Putin informed in details about the situation, and once again reminded about the reasons and goals of the Russian leadership related to the special military operation. In his term, Prime Minister Bennett expressed his opinion about what was going on, and they agreed to continue contacts. And now, frankly speaking, I don't know more than it was in the public. What else? President Putin expressed his opinion about the situation, in very general terms. As far as Russia is concerned, does Israel have any status of mediator between the two sides? And can Russia guarantee the safety of Israelis and Jewish Ukrainians in the territories that have been occupied or will be occupied in Ukraine? As for the state use, there is no official understanding or agreement about any special status for Israel. Some suggestions were made, including the Prime Minister, Bennett, as far as I know there is no special status for Israel, for the time being, once again. As for the safety and security of the civilians in the zones under the control of the military forces of the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and the Russian military force, of course, the humanitarian aspect will be fully taken into account. And of course, all necessary assistance will be delivered to them. What about Jewish populations in the rest of Ukraine that has been affected by the shaleings? We are not, once again, targeting the civilian objects, the civilian facilities. Our targets are military objects, not civilians. And from the Russian side, there is no threat to the safety of any part of the Ukrainian population, including, of course, Jewish population. Oh, and I'll turn to I-24 news. Going back to this issue of mediation, under what circumstances do you expect that your government would be interested in Israel playing a mediation role? What is it that would lead you to change your policy or have an announcement to make about that? And the second question, do you regard... One question, we agree. Okay, okay, continue. To what extent do you regard President Belomberg Zelensky as a Nazi? Do you regard him as leading a Nazi government if you could elaborate on your government's position regarding that? As for the mediation, it's too premature to discuss any possible role in the future. It's just... I'm not a politologist. I'm not an expert. I'm just... I can't convey the official position of the Russian Federation. And of course, all these suggestions or proposals to mediate, of course, they are taking into account the good will gesture. But as for the real status and role, it's too premature to have any serious discussions. As for President Zelensky, the first point he betrayed his people, because he came to power, promising to put an end to the war. It was one of the basic points of his election campaign. And he just betrayed the majority of his electorate. He won with the 83 percent, if you have not mistaken, of votes. And of course, he did opposite. Unfortunately, he fell upon the influence of the radicals and no Nazis in Ukraine, the Ukrainian political spectrum. And of course, his policy led, have lead to the current situation. He contributed heavily to this current situation. We are not calling him Nazi. But at the same time, you know what? When the Ukrainian authorities are trying to persuade that there is no anti-Semitism in Ukraine, they are producing one of the arguments they are producing is, oh, there should be no anti-Semitism because our president is Jewish. Come on. It's like, you know, I'm not anti-Semitism because I have a good, because among Jewish people are good people. It's the highest form of anti-Semitism in our view. And his practice to support manifestations of neo-Nazism is unacceptable for us. And we consider his policy in support of the neo-Nazis, to support the neo-Nazis in his country. Do you have any examples of support for neo-Nazism by President Zelenskina's government, do you even want to? Marches with torch lights. He connected the marches. He provided with the security these marches. Come on, read the papers. Read the information. He sent his security guards, if I'm not mistaken, to ensure security of these Nazis who were marching along the streets in Kiev. Thank you, ladies, from Bloomberg News. I was wondering if you could comment about this post from a few days ago from the Ukrainian embassy asking for volunteers to come and fight against your army in Ukraine. We saw today there were reports that there were 16,000 foreign fighters who were signed up to fight for Ukraine against Russia. I wonder what the view of the Russian Federation has learned on that. And I wonder specifically how you view the action of the Ukrainian embassy here in Israel. Of course, we noticed these kind of activities. You know, it's flagrant violation of the international obligations of Ukraine, at least, and it's up to the Israeli authorities to assess whether it's a violation of Israel's international obligations and internal legislation. What is this something that Mr. Putin has spoken with the Prime Minister of Israel? It's difficult to hear. Is this something that the Prime Minister of Israel has spoken with the Russian Federation? I have no information about that. We will see further reports about the possible conducts. But we noticed that and of course we are going to make clear to the various authorities our point of view on this situation. And by the way, there is one aspect of these kind of activities by the Ukrainian embassy here. I don't want to devote half of our confidence on the assessment of the Ukrainian embassy activities, but bearing in mind the composition of the Russian-speaking Israelis, population, citizens of Israel and citizens of Ukraine and Russia, Russian-speaking Ukrainians speaking doesn't matter. This kind of activity will put an oil to the fire and to the discussions here and to divide the Russian-speaking community here in Israel, which we see as at least counterproductive. And I have a Makovish newspaper. Makovish. The embassy wrote a few days ago that the Army Corporation between Israel and Syria and Russia and Syria will not be held. Is that still the situation? Is it adopted in England in favor of condemning Russia? Could you repeat the beginning of the question? What did we say? I'm talking about the military cooperation. Okay, okay. First of all, let me rebuild correct your question because it's not about military cooperation. You mean this incident preventing mechanism which exists between our ministries of defense and between our militaries. And, of course, I think that in interests both of the Russian Federation and the state of Israel to keep this mechanism working because it's about the safety and security of our people. Will the Russian Federation succeed in standing against the economic sanctions that are piling up, including credit crunch for the large banks and no money in the ATMs for their citizens? I can just say very, very generally that we will withstand any pressure. Mr. Ambassador, the Russian government shut down several media outlets in Russia including Radio Echo and several other media outlets. Journalists have been arrested. Not even one needs to be arrested for doing this job. So why is the Russian government cracking down on journalists that are covering the war? This question to me, why? Because of their policy, I think they violate the Russian legislation as a minimum. It's not just a voluntary decision of any officer in the ministry of defense I think there are grounds for this. But they're not closed. They broadcast was stopped. I do not remember. I do not know the formula. What did they do to warrant? I don't know. I don't know what they did do. It's not a question to me. I'm proceed from understanding that violated the Russian legislation. According to several reports, there are between 6,000, 7,000 Russian citizens were arrested by the police for demonstrating against the war. Arrested or detained? Are you sure about terminology? I don't know. It's the difference. Detained to ask questions and arrest, there is a difference. Of course, I don't know these figures. It's not relevant actually. Why not? I see it's not relevant. It's not relevant? You're the ambassador of Russia. Thank you for reminding. Thank you for reminding that I'm ambassador of Russia. What is the question once again? My question is why is the Russian police arresting peaceful demonstrators in Moscow for demonstrating against the war? I'm sure that they have violated some rules of organizing such an event. That's my answer. They are peacefully protesting. Not for that. There were pictures of a 76-year-old woman. I do not believe in pictures. I'm professional and old woman I'm old and experienced enough not to believe in the pictures. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I do not believe pictures. Don't tell me this. I spent 7 years with the Balkans. I saw the pictures. I don't. Please raise your hand. Yeah, please. Can you give us a second round? Okay, okay. Can you give us an update on the Israeli national that was detained of the... Back to the studio after hearing the comments from the Russian ambassador to Israel, Martin Hemel with us in the studio. It got to a point where it was a bit of if the discussion was somewhat polite at the beginning. Later on came the comments and you saw the ambassador was a bit irritated though he took it quite well. Any big headlines coming from this rather long statement and also the answers integrity of Ukraine, Nazi forces, NATO, it's all over the place. It's all over the place, but I was looking for key words and they are ambiguous. That's the beauty of diplomacy. They can mean many things, but I saw a couple of things. For example, he was talking about the culmination of the conflict, the end of the conflict. Well, no one has mentioned anything about a culmination or an end of the conflict. I don't know exactly what he means by it, but he's talking as if we're already at a point where this is going to be stopped. How? When? Negotiations? We have no idea. We don't know but it was interesting that he used that word. The other interesting thing that he used is that he was trying to shift the conflict. Putin and Lavrov were talking about there's no national sovereignty for Ukraine. It's a myth. It's not a country. Well, suddenly Ukraine is a country. Suddenly it has to be respected about its sovereignty. Of course he would prefer a different government. He says Zelensky is a Nazi and he's running a bunch of Nazis and the Russian government would be much more appreciated, meaning a government that would adhere to Russian interests. That's what he means. But using the word sovereignty was also interesting because just last week Putin and Lavrov talked about no need for territory of Ukraine. It's part of Russia. And thirdly, he talked about the issue of NATO and NATO membership with Ukraine again and making that a stick or a ladder that maybe can get Russia off this tree that it's put itself on with this war. And I'm speculating only. I'm not in the know here on this point. But maybe some sort of face-saving solution would be some sort of reassurance of Ukrainian quote-unquote neutrality meaning that NATO is not going to come into Ukraine. Maybe that would be some sort of face-saving gesture and also Putin has alluded already they might not oppose Ukraine being in the EU. So maybe Ukraine could get a face-saving gesture having some contact with the EU or preferential status with the EU and NATO would not be there and it would be some sort of neutrality.