Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Meeting on the Situation in Ukraine: “Europe is acting not as a mediator or a force for peace, but as the main sponsor to continue the war”

Permanent Representative of Russia Vassily Nebenzia

Statement by Permanent Representative of Russia Vassily Nebenzia at a UN Security Council Meeting on the Situation in Ukraine. Key points.

- As early as 25 June, the head of the Kiev junta loudly announced a 40-day operation to force Russia into peace, effectively adopting a policy of further escalation. As part of this campaign, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) launched targeted strikes against Russian inherently civilian facilities: oil refineries, oil depots, port terminals, energy and industrial infrastructure, retail warehouses, airfields, and ships. European sponsors only encouraged them, supplying them with more and more weapons capable of striking deep into Russia.

- As expected, Kiev failed to achieve its stated goal. Instead, the Russian Armed Forces naturally responded by targeting Ukrainian defense and industrial facilities, as well as energy infrastructure used for military production and logistics. We have repeatedly said that such actions will not go unanswered, and that further escalation will have the most serious consequences for the Kiev regime. Now, instead of admitting that his scheme has failed, Zelensky claims with a straight face that he needs another 40 days to continue the escalation. With this background, all the complaints we have heard and will hear today neither make sense nor have logic. It was Kiev that deliberately chose to exacerbate the situation and set off the escalation, and now it is trying to portray itself as an innocent victim.

- At the same time, we decisively reject baseless accusations that the Russian Armed Forces have presumably targeted the civilian population of Ukraine on purpose. Our targets have been and remain only military facilities and infrastructure involved in supporting combat operations, no matter how hard Kiev and European countries try to claim otherwise.

- Neither Zelensky nor his Western sponsors from the so-called coalition of the willing want a genuine resolution to the Ukrainian crisis. All they need right now is to freeze the conflict so they can have a respite and prepare for a full-scale war with Russia. Since 2022, support for Kiev from the EU and its Member States alone has totaled over 224 billion euros, of which at the very least 93 billion euros have been officially allocated for military purposes. NATO and Brussels are pumping Kiev with weapons, including long-range systems, and providing intelligence for precision targeting, which the AFU use to carry out terrorist attacks against civilian facilities and the civilian population of Russia. However, none of this bothers Western capitals. The so-called leaders in Europe merely roll their eyes, pretending not to understand the true nature of the regime in Kiev that they have nurtured and fostered.

- By a strange twist of fate, the worse the situation on the front lines for the Ukrainian regime becomes, the louder all of Zelensky’s statements about alleged preparedness for peace and a need for a ceasefire seem to grow.

- Terror against civilians and civilian infrastructure has long become one of the tools of Zelensky’s state policy. Residential neighborhoods, civilian buses, hospitals, ambulances, and energy and life-support facilities are targeted time and time again. Since the beginning of this year, the total number of people injured by the AFU in various regions of Russia exceeded 8,000 people, including at least 425 children. Last week alone, 29 civilians, including two children, were killed, and another 206 people were injured.

- There can be no mistake about it: Europe is acting not as a mediator or a force for peace, but as the main sponsor to continue the war. At the same time, the people in European countries are awakening to the fact that their deranged European leaders are preparing their populations for a full-scale war with Russia – as early as 2030. This, to a large extent, explains why support for current governments in several of the largest European countries has hit a record low. However, some so-called European leaders, echoing Goering’s remarks, openly admit that they are not interested in the opinions of their own people: after all, people can always be forced into obedience, especially if you say someone is attacking them. They’re attempting to shift the blame for their own failures onto Russia. They’re resorting to various provocations and hoaxes. The latest example is the so-called drone incident in Leipzig. Instead of evidence and facts, the highly likely approach is used yet again. Instead of an investigation and proof, there are hasty accusations. Even more absurd are the allegations that Moscow is ostensibly unwilling to cooperate with the investigation. No one has even offered us that, knowing full well that we will not only prove our innocence but will also identify the true organizers. Yet even more ridiculous are the statements of Berlin after it has been going through the motions of searching for those responsible for the Nord Stream pipeline explosions for four years now.

- A telling example was the meeting with Minister Lavrov on the sidelines of the High-Level Week of the UNGA 81st session, initiated by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, where, instead of engaging in a substantive conversation, the German Foreign Minister chose to read out a cliched set of anti-Russian accusations in the context of the Ukrainian conflict. This diplomatic performance has only confirmed that Germany’s current leadership lacks an independent foreign policy and is unwilling to engage in a serious, mutually respectful dialogue with Russia. The fact that the Europeans have no Plan B is an extremely alarming wake-up call for the entire world.

- European speculations with global food security and its allegedly catastrophic consequences for the entire world have a very specific purpose: to turn the countries of the Global South against Russia by putting the blame on our country for potential disruptions in the supplies of food and fertilizers. Using their alleged concern for the starving as a pretext, Europeans prefer to keep silent about Kiev’s attacks against civilian shipping.

- Since mid-summer, the AFU have shifted from sporadic attacks in the Azov and Black Sea waters to a tactic of systematically targeting civilian vessels carrying food, oil, and petroleum products. Officials of the Kiev regime have not only publicly confirmed their involvement in such actions but have also emphasized that they are carrying them out intentionally. Out of 228 such incidents since the beginning of the special military operation, 214 incidents were recorded in 2026, with 28 crew members dead as a result. For comparison, in 2025, 12 ships were struck, and one ship each year in 2023 and 2024. This year, the incidents include seven major attacks on tankers carrying Kazakhstani oil transported via facilities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. On 8 July, the AFU struck a vessel owned by Chevron, a US company.

- Under these circumstances, the first step towards stabilization should not be various deals with no guarantees that Kiev will fulfill them, but rather the cessation of its sabotage and terrorist activities against civilian vessels and the abandonment of the practice of creating obstacles to the functioning of existing international trade and logistics routes.

- Russia has never refused to engage in negotiations aimed at a just and sustainable resolution of the Ukrainian crisis. However, this is impossible without overcoming the legacy of the Maidan, removing the root causes – first and foremost, violations of the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population, and repealing other discriminatory laws in Ukraine. The Kiev regime, with the support of its Western allies, is shying away from a serious dialogue. For the regime, the war is a means of political survival. Because as long as Zelensky promises them delusive victories, he remains in power, with weapons continuously flowing into long-suffering Ukraine.

- We did not set this vicious cycle of escalation in motion. It was Kiev that unlocked Pandora’s box. May these miscalculations by the leader of the Kiev gang be a lesson to all those who are trying to impose peace on us on Ukrainian and Western terms through ultimatums. Until our opponents come to realize that it is high time to begin a substantive discussion of the terms that can ensure a long-term settlement, we will continue to achieve the objectives of the special military operation by military means.

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