Statement by Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Anna Evstigneeva at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine

Statement by Chargé d’affaires a.i. Anna Evstigneeva at a UN Security Coyncil briefing on Ukraine. Main points.

- The Kiev regime continues its terrorist attacks against peaceful Russians. In the early hours of July 25, Ukrainian UAVs struck a tourist camp in the Zaporozhye Region, killing 12 people, including five children, another 19 were injured. On the same day, six people were killed and 26 were wounded as a result of a missile strike on a facility in the city of Kirov. On July 20, a passenger bus was attacked on the Belgorod-Shebekino highway. As a result of the drone strike, four women and a 16-year-old teenager were killed, 27 people were injured. Between July 13 and 19, 433 Russian civilians were affected by shelling by Ukrainian Nazis: 364 people were injured, including 12 children, and 69 people were killed, including two children. In total, the Ukrainian troops fired 7,168 rounds of munitions at civilian targets on Russian territory.

- Ukrainian militants continue their terror campaign against the personnel of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). On 15 July, the plant's chief engineer, Alexander Yakovlev, and his driver were killed in Ukraine’s targeted UAV strike on a service vehicle. The murder of specialists responsible for nuclear and radiation safety and security demonstrates Kiev's intention to disrupt the management of the ZNPP and create a threat of a large-scale man-made disaster.

- The complicity and involvement of Western countries in these terrorist attacks is beyond doubt. Let us look at the outcome of the fifteenth meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, held in Paris on 13 July under the co-chairmanship of France and the United Kingdom. Participants in this get-together declared their intention to continue arms supplies to Kiev, increase pressure on Russia and provide support to Ukraine. At the same time, they demanded an immediate ceasefire on their terms, the launch of negotiations with Russia from a position of strength and with the mandatory participation of Europeans, the continued blocking of Russian assets and the further tightening of sanctions. They also reaffirmed their intention, following a ceasefire, to provide the Kiev regime with security guarantees, which the participants in the meeting attempted to portray as exclusively “defensive” in nature. However, the content of the final document exposes this verbal camouflage. It explicitly states that “multinational forces” would be required to restore the capabilities of the Ukrainian army and provide Kiev with support “on land, in the air and at sea”. In other words, behind the lofty slogans about peace lies a straightforward plan: to use the respite to rearm Kiev and prepare for a new round of confrontation with Russia.

- We have seen this film before. It will not happen again. I address the European participants in the “coalition of the willing”. The deployment of military contingents of your countries on Ukrainian territory would constitute foreign intervention, creating a direct threat to Russia's security. We will regard your units as legitimate military targets.

- However, European capitals have long since moved beyond preparing foreign contingents. At the same get-together we mentioned above, they announced the creation of an “anti-ballistic” coalition of nine countries. Under the guise of assurances that the initiative is “exclusively defensive” in nature, the Europeans intend to pool their defense industries, expand weapons production in Ukraine and use its territory as a testing ground. It is telling that immediately after the meeting, President Macron announced that Ukraine will be granted licenses for the production of SCALP cruise missiles, Aster-30 surface-to-air missiles for the SAMP/T air defense system, and AASM Hammer guided aerial bombs. This clearly demonstrates the hypocrisy of the “coalition” members: behind the talk of defense lies a policy of expanding Kiev's long-range arsenal and further escalating the conflict with Russia. Do they realize where all this may bring their own countries? That’s a big question.

- And the reality is that the Russian army is incrementally expanding its zone of control, disrupting the transfer of reserves, undermining supplies to the Ukrainian army and systematically putting out of action facilities supporting the Ukrainian war machine. The attempt, for example, to dispute the capture of Konstantinovka by the Russian Armed Forces ended with the captivity of Ukrainian propagandists who were sent there carrying a Ukrainian flag and portraits of Zelensky and Syrsky. The illusion never came to pass, but at least two Ukrainians were left alive.

- In the early hours of July 19, the Russian Armed Forces carried out a massive strike using precision weapons and attack UAVs targeting Ukrainian defense-industry enterprises and military logistics facilities in Kiev and the Kiev and Odessa Regions. Among targets hit in Kiev were the Radionix, Spetsoboronmash, Meridian and Oakline enterprises. These plants are involved in the production of components for the Flamingo, FP-7, FP-9 and Neptune-MD missiles, maintenance of aviation systems, as well as the manufacture and storage of UAVs. Strikes were also carried out against a Nova Poshta sorting terminal and a logistics center in Tarasovka, which were used for the delivery and distribution of dual-use products and UAV components. At the Yuzhny Port, fuel storage tanks intended to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces were destroyed.

- On 24 July, a coordinated strike was carried out against a facility in the suburbs of Kiev where a demonstration of Ukrainian- and foreign-made UAVs was taking place, with the same types of UAVs being used to hit civilian facilities on Russian territory.

- We would like to emphasize once again that the Russian Armed Forces strike exclusively at specific facilities involved in supporting the Ukrainian army. The mere formal classification of a target as civilian does not alter the nature of its actual use. Kiev, for its part, deliberately locates military production facilities, equipment and warehouses in densely populated urban areas, uses civilian enterprises and transport for military purposes, and then capitalizes on the consequences thereof by blaming Russia for what were actually the results of Kiev’s own practice of militarizing civilian infrastructure and violating international humanitarian law. This is evidenced by numerous videos showing secondary detonations at such facilities, as was the case in Vishnevoe on the outskirts of Kiev, and on vessels in the Black Sea.

- In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that Russia does not intend to change its plans and is determined to continue responding to the hostilities unleashed by the Kiev regime, with Western support, against the south-eastern regions of Ukraine and against Russia. We will not agree to any pseudo-agreements that fail to take Russia's national interests into account. And so far, there are no viable proposals on the table. Therefore, we will continue to pursue the stated goals and objectives of the Special Military Operation.

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