Russian statement in UNSC: “Like 80 years ago, the enemy wants to destroy our country. In its hands Ukraine is but a tool”

Photo: Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

The first deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy (photo) made a Statement at UN Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. He said in particular:

- It is increasingly obvious that the peaceful population of Ukraine would have long stopped to suffer, if the Kiev regime and its Western masters had had true interest in peace. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed lately that Washington and London curbed Ukrainians and did not let them negotiate a realistic peace deal one month after the start of the special military operation.

- Evidence of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations by Kiev and its targeted attacks against civil facilities is multiplying by the day. Thus, on 28 January American HIMARS was used to launch a precision strike against a hospital in Novoaydar of the Lugansk People’s Republic. This tragedy killed 14 people. 24 more suffered wounds of varying degree of severity.

- Deliberate shelling of the functioning civil medical facilities and premeditated murder of civilians are serious war crimes of the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors. Worst of all, artillery strikes by the Kiev regime against the DPR and LPR, as well as the liberated areas of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions cause deaths of children. In 2022, UAF military activities inflicted 4574 casualties, including 153 children. 279 children were wounded.

- The lack of reaction of the US and NATO (who supply Kiev with long-range artillery and rocket launchers) to this egregious trampling upon the International Humanitarian Law confirms once again that they are directly involved in this conflict and complicit in all Kiev’s crimes. We state again that we keep scrupulous record of all facts of the criminal outrage that Ukrainian armed forces commit under Western supervision. None of those will go unpunished.

- Taking into account the huge scale of Kiev’s crimes, it becomes increasingly harder for international human rights organizations who at least pretend to be objective, to disregard these offenses. The recent report of Human Rights Watch, who can hardly be suspected of sympathy for Russia, confirmed what we had repeatedly said in this chamber. Ukraine systematically uses a banned type of antipersonnel mines, PFM-1 Lepestok, against the people of Donbas.

- Ukrainian troops also target infrastructure that is relevant for the entire Europe. Lately, they Ukrainian missile hit “Druzhba” pipeline in the Bryansk region of Russia. The strike created a huge crater, but by a lucky coincidence, the oil pipe itself received no serious damage. We remind that it is the world’s largest pipeline systems that is still used to deliver not only Russian, but also Kazakh oil to Europe. European politicians and taxpayers should think carefully in whose interests their authorities act when they cover up for such crimes of the Kiev regime.

- Russia responsibly approaches the issue of Prisoners of war (POWs). We strictly adhere to our obligations under the IHL, which imply, among other things, a humane treatment of prisoners. Same cannot be said about Ukrainian nationalists, who torture Russian POWs, the gruesome footage of which goes viral on the web. Besides, Ukrainian POWs themselves, as well as their relatives quite often share horrifying insights about the conditions and treatment by senior officers of Ukrainian armed forces. In this battle «until the last Ukrainian» people are used as cannon fodder. This is so much the case that mothers and wives of Ukrainian soldiers would address the Russian Ombudsperson for human rights and request to keep their loved ones on our territory so they are not made to fight again.

- Over the past few months, we saw it clearly that anti-Russian projects had remained in the minds of our former Western partners. Most ardent of the “new Europeans” resolved to deal away with the “Russian question” for good. How else can we explain the following words of Anna Fotyga, ECR MEP from Poland, in an article in “Euractiv”? “There are no such things as Russian gas, oil, aluminium, coal, uranium, diamonds, grain, forests, gold, etc. All such resources are Tatar, Bashkir, Siberian, Karelian, Oirat, Circassian, Buryat, Sakha, Ural, Kuban, Nogai, etc. We should discuss the prospects for the creation of free and independent states in the post-Russian space. The rupture of the Russian Federation will bring unquestionable benefits”. One could regard those words as nonsense and a position of just one Polish representative, if the same ideas were not also circulating in Warsaw, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, and some other Eastern European capitals. And also if the European Parliament, EU’s central mechanism, were not hosting events to promote dissolution of Russia. What do you think we should hold of this, what conclusions should we draw?

- Like 80 years ago, an artful enemy that wants to destroy our country and our culture mounted a challenge to us. In its hands, Ukraine is but a tool. So we have to stop the Kiev regime for the sake of our future and the future of our children… It is our duty to stop the Nazi criminals from Kiev, who are entangled in lies.

- The majority of Ukrainians do understand that. Or how else can we explain the fact that out of 8 million refugees who left Ukraine, almost 3 million headed to Russia? Taking into account those who earlier moved to Russia from Ukraine, seized by the Maidan madness, there are more than 5 million of them. And this is not the forced displacement or deportation that our former Western partners talk about, not willing to believe that millions of former citizens of Ukraine, oppressed by the Kiev regime, have chosen a future with Russia.

- If the collective West continues to supply weapons to Ukraine and postpone peace prospects for that country, then all goals of our military operation will be achieved by military means. No matter how our former Western partners and their Ukrainian adherers try to impede this.

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