РУССКИЙ
11:37 26.08.2026 •
Russian Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia
Statement by Russian Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine.
Mr. President, Mr. Minister,
Today, members of the Security Council once again have to take part in a meeting convened by our European colleagues and Ukraine, with preassigned roles and identically worded statements replete with anti-Russian narratives. What is particularly ironic in this regard is that the chief champions of peace today are those very States that spent years arming Ukraine, systematically turning it into an instrument to exert military and political pressure on Russia, while encouraging Kiev to abandon the implementation of the previously reached Minsk agreements, and then eagerly anticipating Russia’s “strategic defeat.”
And today, without batting an eyelid, they assure those present that they are “not parties to the conflict.” They are “merely helping Ukraine defend itself.”
Today’s meeting is being held under the grand banner of the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. But is there really anything to celebrate? Over these decades, various leaders have essentially run the country into the ground. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, those proclaiming Ukraine’s independence and its supposedly brilliant prospects have, in fact, been destroying the country. And the current dictator, the so-called “president of peace,” whose mandate has, incidentally, long since expired, has been particularly successful in doing so.
With the most active involvement of the countries of the collective West, which claim to be “civilized” and “democratic,” Ukraine has morphed into a “Zelensky concentration camp,” where any dissent or opposition is completely prohibited and those who find the courage to voice an alternative point of view are thrown behind bars without trial or due process, or physically eliminated. The unprecedented persecution of canonical Orthodoxy is accompanied by brutal beatings of clergy and parishioners. History is being intensively rewritten: the legacy of the Soviet Union is being denigrated, while Hitler’s acolytes and collaborators who exterminated hundreds of thousands of Russians, Jews, Poles and Ukrainians during WWII are glorified.
It is not only the Russian language that is being suppressed. Everything connected with our shared past is being eradicated. The Kiev authorities are demonstrating truly visceral Russophobia and xenophobia, including vis-à-vis their own citizens who are Russians not only by blood, but also by their cultural code.
Let me cite an example that might seem comical, but is a very vivid illustration of the sheer wretchedness of Kiev’s rulers: I refer to the Russian animated series Masha and the Bear that fell under sanctions in Ukraine on the grounds that it allegedly promotes Russian militaristic narratives.
Mr. President,
Having failed to achieve the desired results on the battlefield, the Kiev regime has now definitively slipped into outright terror against Russia’s civilian population. At the same time, Zelensky continues to beg his Western patrons for new shipments of weapons and ammunition, which are then used to hit Russian cities, residential areas and civilian infrastructure. The calculation is obvious: to intimidate people, sow chaos and destabilize the situation inside Russia. Terror has become the last resort for Kiev in its attempt to reverse the situation that is not currently in its favor.
The magnitude of these crimes speaks for itself. Between 10 and 16 August alone, 475 civilians fell victim to attacks by the Ukrainian army: 406 people, including 16 children, were injured, while 69 people, including three children, were killed. At least 7,200 rounds of ammunition were fired at civilian targets on Russian territory.
The attack on Nizhnekamsk was particularly monstrous: 13 people were killed, including a child, and 78 were wounded. In Novorossiysk, three civilians were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, and another 24 people were wounded. Five people were killed in the Rostov Region, while in Kremennaya a Ukrainian drone killed a 13-year-old teenager. Drones attacked a commuter train in Ilovaisk, a public transport stop in Donetsk, a medical facility in Yasinovataya and an ambulance crew in Rubezhnoye.
After that, Kiev’s patrons have no grounds whatsoever to speak of “unintended consequences” or “collateral damage.” When residential buildings, children, medical personnel and passenger transport are systematically hit, there is a very specific definition for such acts – that is, terror against the civilian population. And after this, any lamentations over strikes against the Kiev regime’s military infrastructure look particularly strange, given that these facilities are producing, with the money and direct assistance of its Western sponsors, weapons that are used to strike civilian targets in Russia.
Of particular concern is the Kiev regime’s dangerous game around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). On 11 August, three Ukrainian UAVs attacked the plant’s transport facility, injuring two people. On 18 August, a strike on a bus stop used by ZNPP personnel killed one person and injured another 17 employees. Yet another provocation was the essential disruption by the Zelensky regime of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi’s planned visit to the ZNPP scheduled for August 20-21. Despite the security guarantees provided by Russia, Kiev stated that it could not guarantee the Director General’s safety when travelling through Russian territory, forcing him to abandon the visit. Earlier, the Ukrainian side had disrupted rotations of experts and “regimes of silence” required to carry out repair work.
It appears that Ukraine’s Western patrons, not to mention Zelensky himself, still harbor the dangerous illusion that further escalation, strikes deep inside our territory and terror against civilians will somehow force us to accept an ultimatum that is being pushed under the guise of peace. The negotiation demands that are being imposed on us look strange, to say the least – as if it were Russia, rather than Ukraine, that was losing on the battlefield and therefore had to succumb to any terms.
The Russian Armed Forces retain the initiative and are confidently advancing. In just four days, August 16-19, seven settlements were liberated in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye and Kharkov Regions. We continue to methodically undermine the Kiev regime’s military potential. On August 15-21, they carried out one massive and nine group strikes involving high-precision weapons and strike UAVs targeting military infrastructure facilities. Over the same period, 14 sea vessels used in the interests of the Ukrainian army were hit, including two tankers, ten dry-cargo vessels and two patrol boats. Please, make no mistake, and do not mislead others: Western weapons are being shipped to Ukrainian ports aboard presumably civilian vessels under the guise of commercial cargo. Thus, it is port facilities used to receive and store military cargo and fuel that were rendered non-operational. This is the real picture that Kiev prefers to ignore: the Russian army is advancing on the ground while simultaneously depriving the Ukrainian army of the means to supply, produce weapons and proceed with hostilities.
Mr. President,
There will be no agreements at the expense of Russia’s security interests. No frequency of Security Council meetings on Ukraine will change anything here. Any attempts to impose on us a freeze on the conflict under the guise of a ceasefire (but in fact aimed at merely giving Kiev a temporary respite to regroup and rearm) are doomed to failure. As long as we are addressed in the language of ultimatums, terror and threats, with the realities on the ground ignored, there will be no basis for a meaningful political and diplomatic dialogue.
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