Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by Chargé d'Affaires of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC briefing on Ukraine

Mr.President,

Over the month that has passed since our last meeting on Ukraine, we have achieved considerable progress in implementing the tasks of our special military operation.

With the capture of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, the Russian armed forces and formations of the DPR and LPR completely liberated the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic. A systematic offensive in the DPR is also underway. The total of 255 settlements have been liberated in both republics. The people of Donbas will regain control of the entire territory of the region. When it happens is only a matter of time.

There are lots of video reels on the Internet showing how people of the liberated Lisichansk took to the streets to meet the Russian military and the people's militias with St. George ribbons and Russian flags in their hands. We suggest that everyone who already got pretty tired with Ukrainian narrative about the Russian troops who allegedly terrorize the local population should watch this footage and see the reaction of real people and tears of joy in their eyes when they could finally leave shelters and no longer be afraid of Ukrainian nationalists.

Recovery of the liberated areas is in full swing. Thanks to our efforts, Mariupol is getting back to peaceful life, where centralized water and energy supply is being restored. Construction of a main water pipeline has begun in the LPR, and in Lugansk itself a multifunctional medical facility is being built at the moment.

Cruelty of Ukrainian nationalists, their indifference to the people of southern and eastern Ukraine have affected the spirit of those who live there. In Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, people stand lines to apply for Russian passports. Despite the fact that Ukrainian authorities intimidate their citizens in every possible way, committing acts of terror against employees of civil administrations and initiating criminal prosecution for transfer into the Russian citizenship, people still make their choice in favor of a country they trust, in favor of a normal future for themselves and their children. Ukraine is losing those people by the minute – the way it lost the people of Donbas once the Kiev regime waged a war of extermination on them back in 2014.

The Kiev regime tries to exact vengeance even on its own military who finally realized the futility of fulfilling the criminal orders and surrendered to have a chance for redemption and peaceful life. US-made HIMARS MLRS struck a detention center near Elenovka in Donbas earlier today, killing more than 50 Ukrainian PoWs. However this scare tactic will only encourage Ukrainian servicemen to surrender. There are mass cases when Ukrainian soldiers refuse to continue fighting. We see such instances daily.

I mentioned that the sentiment of people of southern Ukraine has changed. What plays a role here is the fact that Ukrainian armed forces stick to their favorite tactic of using civilian infrastructure as shelters and deployment sites for heavy equipment. Dozens of eyewitnesses testify to this and confirm that this is the way the Kiev regime treats its people. Unlike “witnesses” associated with Ukrainian and Western investigations, those people do not conceal their names and addresses. They also confirm that UAF target civil facilities and shoot at civilians, which they later try to present as something done by the Russian troops. Such staged incidents, like the notorious one in Bucha, gather more and more refutations that are almost impossible to ignore. The only ones to not notice this are our Western colleagues. We could make sure of this on several occasions, i.a. at this meeting. Today our British colleague cited an exhaustive list of such provocations. Thank you very much for that.

Mr.President,

Over the past month, there has been some progress with regard to the exports of Ukrainian grain, and access of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets. On 22 July, two documents were signed in Istanbul. When put together, they constitute a package agreement. Let me underscore that we were ready to settle those issues as early as in April, once a corresponding discussion had been held in Moscow at the meeting of President Putin and Secretary-General Guterres. But Kiev and its Western sponsors tried to sabotage this package, only propelling its part regarding the Ukrainian grain. Even though, by our estimates, here we speak about only 5 million tonnes, i.e. less that 1% of the total volume of grain at the global market. We thank the Secretary-General and the Turkish side who did not agree to do the bidding of the West, which to a large extent made the achieved agreements possible at all. The signing of a Russia-United Nations memorandum on efforts to facilitate access of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets once again proves that attempts to blame us for the global food crisis (which was artificially created by actions of Western states and which becomes more and more distinct now) are completely baseless.

On 26 July, the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) commenced its work to facilitate safe transportation of grain from Ukrainian ports, comprised of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations. We hope that the Istanbul agreements will soon start to be implemented to their full extent, and that the Secretary-General will uphold his obligations and do his best to remove obstacles created by the United States and the European Union with regard to payment, insurance, and logistics of Russian cargoes. By the way, placement of military goods and facilities in the Odessa port can hardly promote successful implementation of the grain deal. We will keep destroying such cargoes and facilities, as we did on 23 July, when we eliminated a Ukrainian military ship and a depot of Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered by the US. Nothing in the memorandum that we signed prevents us from proceeding with our goal of Ukraine’s demilitarization.

Mr.President,

Over the past month, the proxy war of the West against Russia which is being fought “until the last Ukrainian” has escalated to a new spiral. Now that the Ukrainian regime started to receive state-of-the-art multiple rocket launchers that it uses at the prompting and under the supervision of Western instructors, we are approaching a point where Western states get directly involved in the conflict. So called “private” Western companies eagerly provide their satellite images to Kiev to help it plan and launch strikes. Note once have we seen such images being used in all sorts of staged incidents and provocations.

Of course, we cannot fail to take this into account. As for the weapons that are delivered to Kiev and mercenaries that remain on the Ukrainian territory, we will keep striking those as legitimate military targets.

Reckless “pumping up” of Ukraine with weapons, artillery systems, and firearms trigger a situation when, due to flourishing corruption among Ukrainian political and military leadership, those weapons spread throughout Europe. We know that a considerable part of it goes from warehouses straight into the hands of smugglers and then, via established channels – to the global black market of arms. Such information is almost openly publicized at corresponding web resources. The problem has assumed such a huge scope that even mainstream Western media can no longer turn a blind eye to it.

Even Europol had to recognize this. Last week its spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth said in a comment to DPA that Europol was aware of reports about trade in heavy weapons. He also admitted that European law enforcement had some information about firearms being smuggled out of Ukraine. The spokesperson stressed that there remained risks of those arms falling in the hands of organized crime or terrorists.

Some Media have posted “leaks” from the confidential report that Europol submitted to the European Council. The report says that criminal networks are engaged in smuggling “a considerable amount of firearms and ammunition” from Ukraine to the European Union. By Europol’s estimates, weapon stashes have been created along the EU-Ukraine border.

Here is a clear illustration of these conclusions – Hungarian and Slovak law enforcement bodies carried out a joint operation to bust a criminal group dealing in smuggle of weapons previously delivered to Ukraine. A large arsenal, including sniper rifles, machine guns and explosives was seized in a Hungarian settlement called Rajka, which is only a one-hour ride away from the world’s leading disarmament platform in Vienna. As one of the detained admitted, those weapons “had been delivered to Ukraine and meant to be used by Ukrainian armed formations, including the Azov battalion, but then were sold and taken to the European Union”.

Let me ask our Western colleagues: are you aware of the consequences of your actions? We begin to doubt it. You are creating, with your own hands, a regional if not a global hub for illegal arms trafficking in the very center of Europe. By doing so, you put your population at risk – at the expense of your own taxpayers.

Do not tell us we have not warned you when the weapons you dispatch to Ukraine surface in a conflict zone in a third country in some other region of the world and target United Nations’ peacekeepers. Or if extremists use those weapons to carry out a terrorist attack in Europe itself. All your attempts to pump up the Ukrainian regime with weapons but prolong its agony and inflate sufferings of Ukrainians whom the current irresponsible leadership of the country uses as cannon fodder. The goals of our special military operation will still be attained, no matter how much fuel you add to this fire by providing weapons to Ukraine.

Mr.President,

Throughout the month of July, our Western colleagues deliberately ignored the fact that UAF had actively used explosive-laden drones of foreign manufacture to attack the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Thus, an attack on 20 July started a fire at the NPP. It was only by sheer luck that this did not lead to a major disaster to affect all of Europe. Let me emphasize that this was a targeted attack of Ukrainian armed forces on a nuclear facility – Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The problem was duly tackled, and now the NPP works routinely under control of the Russian military. What we find the most appalling in this story is the enormous hypocrisy of Western states who did not give any assessment to this provocation of the Kiev regime. Let me remind you that at a Security Council meeting back in March they spread hysteria about phantom “radiological threat”, allegedly posed by Russian shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP – even though Director-General of the IAEA said publicly that there was no such danger.

Frankly speaking, this reminds me of criminal blindness that Western states demonstrated for 7 years on end when they covered up for Kiev’s non-compliance with the Minsk Agreements. Regrettably, the same sort of blindness and double standards is what the UN leadership demonstrates now. This irresponsible stance can only encourage Kiev to take further steps to undermine nuclear security on the continent.

Mr.President,

Let me draw the attention of Western delegations to the fact that your much-trumpeted longer range artillery makes it possible for the UAF to hit rear areas of Donbas and kill civilians without any military logic behind it – solely for revenge and intimidation. The Kiev regime deliberately targets schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in Donetsk, Kherson, Stakhanov, Gorlovka, etc. Almost daily, 5-10 people are killed and dozens more injured in Donbas under fire from NATO-supplied long-range artillery. Western and Ukrainian media notice none of this, which however does not make those crimes less atrocious. When supplying Ukraine with long-range artillery, the West becomes an accomplice in the war crimes committed by the Kiev regime.

It is especially heartbreaking when Ukrainian shelling kills children. Donbas has a sad history of burying its children that started eight years ago, the moment Ukraine launched a punitive military operation in this region.

The day before yesterday, on 27 July, the Donetsk People’s Republic marked the Remembrance Day of the children-victims of the war in Donbass. On that day the people of Donetsk took flowers and toys to the memorial in the Alley of Angels. During the moment of silence the city immersed in a deep stillness that could not be interrupted even by the sounds of the artillery which UAF had been using actively from the very morning on that day.

The choice of date was not accidental. On 27 July 2014, an infant girl named Kira Zhuk (who was less than one year of age) and her mother had died in a shelling of Gorlovka by the Ukrainian forces. I am now holding her photo. Four more children died on that day. They were one of the first victims of Kiev's war on Donbas that has continued for 8 more years since then. To honor their memory, the Alley of Angels was erected in Donbas with a monument at its center. Carved on that monument are the names of all children killed by Ukraine. As of today, there are 130 names. Among them thirteen-year-old Anastasia Konoplyova, whose photo I am holding now. She was hit by a shelling together with her brother and sister at their own home in 2015.

Unfortunately, this terrible list grows steadily. Since February this year, 249 civilians, including 16 children have been killed in the DPR alone. I want you to have a look at the photo of ten-year-old Veronika Badina, who was killed on 5 July by a UAF shelling in Donetsk; and the photo of seven-year-old Masha Evtukhova, who died on 6 July on a playground together with three peers. I show this to you not only because Ukraine killed those children this month, but because all of them, and three more children were hit by projectiles fired from Western artillery systems. As long as the UAF did not have those systems, they could not target those areas. Well, now they can.

You know what President Zelensky of Ukraine said the night the UAF killed 5 children in a row? Do you think he extended his condolences to the parents who had lost what was the most precious in their lives? Far from it! I will cite his words. He said, “finally it is felt that the Western artillery—the weapons we received from our partners— started working very powerfully. Its accuracy is exactly as needed.”

I am now turning to my American, British, and French colleagues sitting at this table. I want you to understand clearly this one thing – your countries deliver weapons to Ukraine, weapons that are purchased with your taxpayers’ money, and those weapons kill children. And President of Ukraine mocks at this, praising the accuracy of those weapons. Is it what you wanted? If not, where are your words of condemnation of this unthinkable profanity?

I bet some of you think that Ukrainian regime kills children in Donbas unintentionally, as “collateral damage” (if we use the language of our former US partners). I am afraid I must disappoint you, because this is done knowingly. Let me show you one more picture. Do you know what it is? This is a landmine called “Lepestok” (flower petal), which is planted remotely. Ukrainian forces now plant lots of such mines in Donbas with the help of cluster munition. Lepestok is no bigger than your palm, it is very hard to detect on the ground, and looks much like a play toy. When touched or stepped upon, it explodes. It will cripple an adult, and most likely kill a child. So please tell me why plant those deadly toys in rear areas of Donbas, in peaceful cities? The answer is obvious – to kill as many children as possible. Such cruelty may startle, but those who attended our two recent Arria meetings of UNSC members, are well aware that this level of hatred to the people of southern and eastern Ukraine is part of the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism and neo-Nazism. The world will earn many more shocking facts about those horrible phenomena that Ukraine’s Western sponsors eagerly disregard. This is the result of your blindness.

Colleagues, 

Now that I have shown you photos of those children, I believe there is no need to repeat that denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be carried out to their full extent. Ukraine must not be a source of threat to Donbas, Russia, or the liberated Ukrainian territories where people, after many years, have started to feel what it is like to live the life they want.

In conclusion, let me again address our Western colleagues. When delivering long-range artillery systems and multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine, you basically shift the security line that is necessary for peaceful development of the mentioned regions further to the West, thus adjusting the goals and objectives of our SMO. Think about this, as well as the fact that after the SMO is completed, we will still have to live next to each other and cooperate in one way or another. Now you largely set the conditions for this stage yourself. And you can trust me when I say that your willingness to help Ukrainians kill the children of Donetsk and Lugansk is not likely to be forgotten soon by either Ukrainians or Russians.

Thank you.