Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine

We welcome Secretary-General of the United Nations to this meeting. We listened carefully to the briefings by Martin Griffiths and Filippo Grandi.

Without any doubt, all of us are very concerned over the situation in Ukraine. We see the suffering of ordinary people who in fact are hostages of Ukrainian radicals and nationalists who desperately cling to power. Why do I say so? Because when it comes to areas that passed into the control of the Russian Armed Forces, the population there does not encounter any acute humanitarian problems. Once the radicals left, local authorities started to function routinely, providing all the necessary services to the population. Life-supporting infrastructure keeps functioning. Serious problems can only be seen in cities where the authorities made a criminal and irresponsible order to give arms to anyone willing to take them, including criminals who had been released from prisons for that purpose. Hence – mass robberies, murders, plundering. Plentiful information about it is available on social media. One can also find addresses by heads of some local administrations to Ukrainian authorities begging to stop this madness. There are numerous cases when victims of such armed plunderers and bandits are said to be victims who allegedly died at the hands of some Russian subversive groups.

I now address the people of Kiev whom radicals hold in the city as a human shield. Russian Defense Ministry confirms that civilians can unimpededly leave Kiev via “Kiev-Vasilkov” highway. This is an open and safe corridor.

We repeat again that Russia’s special military operation does not seek to occupy Ukraine or inflict damage on the local population. Demilitarization of Ukraine which is packed with NATO weapons is aimed at protecting the long-suffering people of Donbas and Ukraine. The Russian special operation does not impact critical civil infrastructure. Over the five days of this operation, there have been no recorded cases of deliberate devastation. By the same token, there is no evidence of civilians dying through the fault of Russian military. We are constantly told the opposite though, with a reference to some credible reports. Now the information space is swarming with fakes that try to make us responsible for what Ukraine is doing itself. This flow of blatant lies, replicated by Western media, unfortunately has become a dangerous sign of our time. At this UNSC meeting, we again heard allegations about bombardments of residential quarters, hospitals, schools, and kindergartens. What is known for sure though is the fact that Ukrainian nationalists deploy assault weapons in residential areas, which constitutes a direct violation of the international humanitarian law. We would ask Martin Griffiths and Filippo Grandi to comment on that.

Everyone is well aware that starting from 2014, Russia and Russia alone has supported the peaceful population of Donbas, that was confronted with unstopping bombardments of the Ukrainian army and a total blockade imposed by Kiev. We have held several UNSC meetings where we shared our approaches. I will not be repetitive. Let me only say that we regret that even today, when we discuss the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, no one of our Western colleagues uttered a word about the people of Donbas, whose sufferings that have lasted for 8 years, you chose to ignore.

An important support measure for the population of Donbas was the 2019 decree of President of Russia Vadimir Putin “On determining for humanitarian purposes categories of individuals who may apply for the citizenship of the Russian Federation via a simplified procedure”. In a situation when the criminal Kiev authorities made the people of southeastern Ukraine actually struggle for survival, Russian citizenship allowed them to receive social benefits, pensions, salaries, as well as education and healthcare services.

Apart from that, there are 110,000 refugees from the DPR and LPR in Russia at the moment. They had to leave their places of residence after a week ago Kiev made another attempt to solve the problem of Donbas by military means, in violation of the Minsk Package. Our Western partners also can be blamed for this, because they openly indulged Kiev when it defied the Minsk Agreements, and pumped it up with weapons.

By our estimates, since the beginning of conflict in 2014, approximately 3 million Ukrainians have moved to Russia.

In conclusion, let me stress that Russia did not start a war, but tries to put an end to it. This war began back in 2014, but you have tried to ignore it throughout all those years.

It was strange to hear the representative of France say that European sanctions against Russia do not violate provisions of the international humanitarian law and the interests of Russia’s ordinary people. We have heard such hypocritical claims before, in the context of other country situations.

As for the draft humanitarian resolution on Ukraine proposed by France, we need to study the text closely before we can make any assessments. In any case, I ask you to proceed from the assumption that Russian military will provide any necessary humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine on the territories that have been liberated from radicals.

Thank you.

 

Right of reply:

I was surprised at some comments by the briefers. Some reports, footage and messages about the developments in Ukraine are taken for granted, whilst others, though obvious and undoubtedly true, are considered unconfirmed and unverified. We will share some videos with you and will expect the UN leadership to comment on how such acts by Ukrainian radicals should be perceived.