Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on Ukraine
Mme.President,
We consider it very timely to gather in this room again to discuss the issue of the continuing deliveries of Western arms and military equipment to Ukraine and the implications of this situation for the search for a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian crisis. This is particularly important against the escalatory rhetoric regarding the conflict in Ukraine by those who handle the Kiev regime, and the emergence of new evidence of direct involvement of NATO countries in it.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, our former partners have been assuring the whole world that Kiev is supposedly fighting for its independence and the ideals of democracy on its own, and that the West supports it to the best of its ability. I will leave aside the true goals of the Kiev regime and its eight-year war of extermination against the population of Donbas, which our SMO is called to stop. I will make another point. We can now say for sure that the scale of NATO's involvement in keeping Kiev afloat is much broader than Washington and Brussels try to make it seem. But even despite the military, financial and political assistance provided, Ukraine is inevitably heading towards a military defeat.
On the battlefield, things are extremely bad for the Kiev regime. Thanks to the successful advance of Russian troops in all directions, the UAF is retreating, and the defection rate has increased dramatically, because many people have finally realized what is happening and are not ready to die for someone else's geopolitical aspirations. At the same time, Western puppeteers do not stop and call for more and more Ukrainians to be thrown into the grinder assaults. The other day American Senator Lindsey Graham said the following in Kiev, "We need more people. No matter what we do, you should be fighting." Following these precepts, military commissions continue to approach men of conscription age in the streets to then send them to the front. Some are luckier than others and manage to escape going to sure death. Stories about attempts to cross the border illegally leak to the media every now and then. It is noteworthy that officials and even diplomats who have such an opportunity are fleeing from the sinking ship called Ukraine, as the Ukrainian media report that a significant part of them simply do not return from abroad at the end of their assignments.
Ukraine’s current economic state is best described by its leadership. V. Zelensky said that without foreign financial injections, 11 million retired seniors would die. Deputy Minister of Economy T. Kachka revealed an open secret saying that half of the country's budget is subsidized by the West.
It is worth repeating here that senseless casualties in the battle and depressing consequences for Ukraine's social and economic life could have been avoided by ending the conflict back in April 2022. It was then that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson forbade the Kiev regime from signing the peace treaty with Russia (which had already been initialed) condemning hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians to death.
Since then, the situation for the Bandera junta has deteriorated many times over, both politically and militarily. Given the fact that the UAF has not fought with its own weapons for a long time, we can say that the goal of our SMO to demilitarize Ukraine per se has been fulfilled. Now the militants survive solely on supplies from NATO. But even despite the forced transfer of the most expensive Western equipment to the front, Russian armed forces continue to destroy Abrams, Leopards and HIMARS.
At the same time, there is a new increasingly clear and conscious course of Kiev's Western masters towards escalating the crisis because the war against Russia by the hands of the Ukrainians is not yielding the desired results. Instead of forcing their subjects to sit down at the negotiating table, they continue to dissuade them from diplomacy in every possible way. According to the recent leaks and statements by some politicians, we can conclude that in its desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, the West is making crazy speeches about being ready to start an acute phase of the conflict, i.e. a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.
In particular, this is the takeaway from 38-minute conversation between high-ranking German generals that has been leaked on the Internet. In a very business-like manner, they were discussing scenarios for striking the Crimean Bridge and other Russian civilian infrastructure and speculating on how many long-range Taurus missiles this would take. In other words, they were plotting a terrorist attack. Remarkably, after the conversation was made public, German authorities expressed concern only about the fact of the leak, but not the content of the conversation, and rushed to block the distribution of the recording online, clearly trying to cover up the scandal and hide it from the public. They dubbed it as a disinformation attack, but immediately acknowledged the authenticity of the recording.
Against this backdrop, Emmanuel Macron's bellicose anti-Russian rhetoric does not even surprise, though it is strongly alarming. In recent weeks, he has made provocative statements about France's lack of any "red lines" with regard to the conflict and its readiness to send troops to Ukraine to take part in combat operations. Reportedly, it may be about 2,000 soldiers to be stationed i.a. in areas bordering on Belarus.
Of course, such irresponsible statements can be written off as self-promotion, but it is worth recalling here that Paris was one of the first to become complicit in the crimes of the Kiev regime, consistently pursuing a course of escalation. France initiates coalitions in support of Ukraine - there are such coalitions for tanks, artillery and long-range missiles. Besides, Paris encourages the sending of mercenaries from among its own citizens, although continues to deny this fact, hiding behind the provisions of French law on the prohibition of mercenarism. At the same time, we are reliably informed that French mercenaries are members of the UAF International Legion and perform command functions in the rear. Since the beginning of the special military operation, more than 13 thousand foreign fighters have arrived in Ukraine, most of them have already been liquidated. When planning to send regular troops, Paris needs to remember an important thing: they will be considered a legitimate and even a priority target for our forces.
Perhaps it is time to give yourselves an honest answer: what is of greater value to you - the lives and well-being of your own citizens or the delusional dream of weakening Russia? By the way, today marks 210 years since the Russian troops entered Paris when France's previous attempt to unite Europe on an anti-Russian basis failed. Our advice to France and Germany is to not forget the lessons of history, so as not to “tear your hair” later.
In general, lately the hypocrisy and duplicity of Western politicians has gone off scale. Leaked communications of German military, Macron's rhetoric, and the confessions of a number of other representatives of Western political establishment clearly point to the direct, not indirect, involvement of NATO countries in the conflict. It makes no sense to deny it, for it is proved by hundreds of other foreign military advisers and mercenaries, whom Western capitals are vainly trying to hide from their own public.
At the same time, new devious logic is emerging. Relatively recently, these same states argued that Ukraine should be admitted to NATO because Russia would not dare to attack an NATO member. Now we hear the exact opposite. They say Kiev cannot be allowed to lose, because Russia will not stop in Ukraine and will move on to attack NATO countries. Where is the consistency in your assertions?
Now I address the representatives of Western countries in this Chamber. You have already brought Ukraine to the edge of the abyss, drained it of almost all the resources, deprived the population of the right to a decent future. Now you are getting restless, because your actions to defeat Russia strategically or at least weaken us have not brought the desired result. Do you realize that with your irresponsible rhetoric you are raising the stakes and risking to escalate the conflict into a new sharp and unpredictable phase? Are your countries ready to go to war with Russia and does the broader European society realize what your actions may lead to? Maybe the time has come to think about the consequences of your irresponsible behavior and narrative for European regional security? Though the latter has already suffered enormous damage, including through the spread of weapons supplied to Ukraine, the effect of which you will feel for years to come.
According to a recent report by the US Government Accountability Office, Washington is unable to reliably establish how many weapons and ammunition have been delivered to Ukraine because the Pentagon lacks the relevant standardized guidance.
The ongoing Pentagon audit found no records on the delivery status of nearly half of the shipments to Ukraine. Moreover, USGAO leadership was unable to identify the reason why this happened.
Under the same report, the Department of Defense, too, is unable to monitor the status of deliveries after they reach Ukrainian territory. In other words, it is in fact impossible to exercise independent control and make sure that the supplied weapons do not spread beyond the borders of Ukraine. Nor can the military boast of precise data on the fate of products made by American military industry – whether they have been used, destroyed or lost. There are also problems with making an unbiased assessment of whether American arms have found their way to the black market.
Prague continues to play an extremely disreputable role in "pumping up" weapons to Ukraine. Czech Minister of Defense, J. Lipavsky, just the other day announced that they scraped together another batch of 300,000 shells for Ukraine.
At the same time, a poll conducted by SANEP agency shows that almost two-thirds of Czechs (63.4%) oppose the continuation of weapon deliveries to Ukraine (63.4%), while more than 70% are convinced that the government should support the start of peace talks. Perhaps such changes in the mood of the Czech public are also affected by the fact that Ukrainian Nazis use Czech-supplied MLRS to target peaceful Russian cities, particularly Belgorod. Unfortunately, our Czech colleague again had no courage to appear before the members of the Security Council to explain to us, as well as to all those who follow our work, why the Czech authorities, disregarding the opinion of their own citizens, continue to hand over lethal weapons to Ukraine, which are used to attack civilians on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Mme.President,
We note the increased number of calls from our foreign partners to move to negotiations to end the hostilities. Leaving aside Kiev’s intractability (which we have already seen on repeated occasions) and the fact that the regime has legislatively forbidden any negotiations with Russia, I should like to ask everyone present a question. Who is it that we should hold negotiations with, at least hypothetically? After all, the sole decision of the Kiev dictator not to hold presidential elections (obviously in fear of losing them) that he made in violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, renders him illegitimate after May 21 this year. And the political leadership of the country continues to grow more and more disorganized, with members of the Verkhovna Rada fleeing abroad. Centrifugal tendencies are also observed in Ukrainian society as a whole. Given this, as well as the plummeting support ratings for the leader of the Kiev junta, the question arises: whom is he representing? With whom should we maintain a dialogue and negotiate when and if it becomes necessary?
I call on everyone to think about this, and I call on the puppeteers of the Kiev regime to think about what their support for the dictatorship in Ukraine, which is growing stronger every day, looks like from the outside. Your slogans about defending the freedom and independence of Ukraine sound false and insincere, as the only ones you have long been defending is Zelensky and his clique. Ukraine as such and Ukrainians have not been and are not threatened by anyone: we have been and remain ready to live with them in good-neighborly spirit, peace and harmony. For this purpose, it is necessary to fully implement the goals of our special military operation, which does not include the destruction of Ukraine or its de-Ukrainization. We are ready to achieve our goals both militarily and diplomatically, of course, taking into account the realities on the ground. The sooner you realize this the better.
Thank you.
