Defense Ministry rejects Russian Federation Embassy accusations: Illegal aggression in Ukraine cannot be justified by propaganda

The Romanian National Defense Ministry (MApN) rejects the accusations of the Russian Federation Embassy's of having made unfounded allegation against Russia, MApN mentioning that "the illegal, unjustified and deeply immoral aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and its consequences cannot be justified or covered up by any form of official propaganda or attempts at information manipulation."The Russian Federation Embassy in Bucharest on Thursday December 12 issued a press release accusing the Romanian National Defense Ministry of unfounded allegation against Russia, inforadar.mapn.ro informs.According to the quoted source, the Russian Embassy's statement maintains that the Romanian Ministry of National Defense made an unfounded allegation that Russia uses sea mines "in illegal attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure" in the Black Sea.MApN points out that on December 11, Romania's Ministry of National Defense issued a press release, entitled 'The Minister of National Defense and the US Ambassador visited the 99 Deveselu Military Base'. In this press release, the Romanian Minister of Defense is quoted as saying: "Unfortunately, as a result of Russia's aggressive actions, the Black Sea has turned from an area of cooperation and free trade into a war zone. Sea mines, drones or fragments of drones used in illegal attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure, which have fallen on Ukrainian territory, are security threats that we are directly confronted with. Romania's commitment, together with our allies, to ensuring security in our region is unwavering.""Any Romanian speaker with elementary grammar can understand that the highlighted sentence is a comma-separated enumeration of elements equal in meaning and importance. In a nutshell, the main "security threats we directly face" are two: (1) "sea mines" and (2) "drones or fragments of drones used in illegal attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure, which have fallen on the national territory". We think that it is abundantly clear that this statement did not substantiate the idea that Russian forces attacked Ukrainian ports with sea mines. Equally obvious is the fact that this communiqué made no reference whatsoever to the origin of the sea mines that pose a threat to shipping traffic in the Black Sea. The Romanians have a proverb for situations of this kind, about the truth spoken from the mouth of the sinner," MApN pointed out in Inforadar.The Ministry also shows, nonetheless, that this threat is as real as it can be, with 107 mines having so far been identified and neutralized by the naval forces of the riparian states.In this respect, we can conclude that the "allegations in the MApN communiqué that attracted the attention of the Russian embassy are in no way unfounded," the Ministry also points out."It is abundantly clear (both to us and to the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, as we can see) who has turned the Black Sea region into a theater of war, with tragic consequences for the Ukrainian people and with very serious dangers and threats to regional and even global security. The illegal, unjustified and deeply immoral aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and its consequences cannot be justified or covered up by any form of official propaganda or attempts at information manipulation," the MApN also pointed out on Inforadar.