Statement by Chargé d'Affaires a.i. Dmitry Polyanskiy at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine
Mr. President,
The meetings on Ukraine requested by our Western colleagues tend to follow the same fairly primitive template. Russia is being accused of striking Ukrainian cities, and we hear unsubstantiated claims that it is civilian objects that were allegedly targets of our attacks. What is being ignored is the fact that civilian casualties during our strikes are caused exclusively by falling shrapnel from downed missiles or drones, or directly by Ukrainian air defense missiles that went astray. The reason why it is happening is also well known: Ukraine has placed its air defense in densely populated residential areas in violation of basic IHL norms. At the same time, targeted Ukrainian attacks using missiles and drones on civilian objects in Russian territory are carefully hushed up. This is the whole ham-fisted scheme, as part of which we hear the same cookie-cutter statements by our Western colleagues, who are packed in today, yet again, like sardines in a tin. These statements are so utterly inhumane and divorced from reality that our Western colleagues might as well farm them out to artificial intelligence to prepare. Perhaps they are already doing so, since we have heard today nothing new that goes beyond this template.
My response to these accusations today will hardly contain anything new either. Indeed, in the early hours of August 28, as part of our mission to demilitarize Ukraine, we executed strikes against targets related to the country's military-industrial complex. According to today’s reports by the Russian Ministry of Defense, 62% of Ukraine's key military-industrial complex enterprises have already been damaged. Specifically, it is military airfields, aerial munitions depots, hangars, airport aprons, and other transport and energy hubs in a number of Ukrainian regions that were subjected to coordinated missile and air strikes. In Kiev and the Kiev region, we targeted industry enterprises, including the Artem plant, Kiev Radio Plant, SpecOboronMash, Slavutich, and UkrSpecSystems factories. These enterprises were directly involved in the development and manufacturing of various types of UAVs, they also housed facilities to repair and manufacture radar stations, fire control systems, and communication equipment, as well as assembly lines and warehouses of the Ukrainian army.
At the same time, the Kiev regime, as ever, has unscrupulously and malevolently resorted to the tactic of a “human shield” placing defense industry enterprises, air defense systems, and electronic warfare equipment near residential buildings in densely populated urban areas. Therefore, it is not surprising that Ukrainian air defense missiles yet again fell on residential areas. This is precisely what caused the damage to the EU and British offices, and killed civilians in partially destroyed residential buildings. However, these victims do not compel the criminal regime to at long last remove air defense and military facilities from residential areas, but, on the contrary, these casualties are used as a tool for political manipulation. Each such tragedy is deliberately exaggerated only to blame Russia for the deaths of Ukrainian citizens, appeal to Western sponsors and international donors, demand new sanctions, and beg for new arms supplies. This is what happened today as well. Before our very eyes, the lives of civilians are being turned into bargaining chips, and human suffering is becoming a means of achieving self-centered foreign policy goals, and all of this is happening with the complicity of Western members of the UNSC.
For all blatant hypocrisy of our Western colleagues and their reluctance to expose the true cause of the deaths, Ukrainian citizens have already figured out what is happening. It didn’t take them long to realize that it is Ukrainian air defense systems, rather than Russian strikes, that pose a danger to them. You don't believe me? – Just surf Ukrainian social media, where people have long been warning one another about the placement of air defense systems and military manufacturing facilities in the vicinity of their homes, and they are making fun of you, our Western colleagues, and of your clumsy attempts to cover for the criminal Kiev regime.
Mr. President,
There is another thing that is transforming today's meeting into a theater of the absurd. While focusing on the victims and destruction in Ukrainian cities, the Western initiators of today's meeting are, as usual, deliberately ignoring the Ukrainian army’s premeditated hunting of civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, which is underway on Russian soil. Ukrainian Nazis are intentionally targeting their drones at apartment buildings and private homes, civilian passenger vehicles, agricultural machinery harvesting crops in the fields, and commercial and social facilities. Every day, dozens and hundreds of drones are being launched against Russian regions. In just one week, from August 18 to 24, shelling by Ukrainian Nazis caused 140 civilian casualties – 121 people were wounded, including 8 minors, and 19 people were killed, including one child. But these victims are of no interest to our Western colleagues; they fit into their strategy of harming Russia by hands of Ukraine, which is precisely the reason why back in the day they created their “Anti-Russia” project.
In addition, it is being also deliberately overlooked that our combined strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities were carried out in response to what has been going on over the past two weeks following the summit in Alaska, namely attacks on oil refineries in Russia. It is obvious that these strikes have no strategic military significance, as they do not impact the situation on the contact line. Their true purpose is to damage civilian energy infrastructure and disrupt fuel supplies. Moreover, these actions are meant to provoke retaliatory measures from Russia only to subsequently misrepresent them as “disproportionate” and accuse Moscow of sabotaging any attempts at peace talks.
What merits our attention in this context are attacks on the Druzhba oil pipeline, which is one of the key routes for oil supplies to Europe. The most recent sabotage of August 22 was so severe that it put the pipeline out of operation for several days. This was nothing but a provocation designed to harm the economic interests of EU countries and the infrastructure that ensures the energy stability of the region. Under pressure from Hungary and Slovakia, even the European Commission was forced to react to this.
In other words, what is being played up today are the consequences of Russia's retaliatory actions, and nobody wants to mention what provoked these strikes. This is an unsophisticated and hypocritical tactic that only demonstrates the selective blindness and double standards of our Western colleagues.
Mr. President,
These same glaring “double standards” are most clearly on display when we see Western accomplices of the Kiev regime turning a blind eye to the human rights violations committed by the Zelensky regime, which are through the roof even by Ukrainian Maidan-style standards. Meanwhile, we are talking about massive infringements on fundamental human rights and freedoms (including those of the Russian-speaking population), misanthropic persecution of dissent, and attempts to outlaw the canonical Orthodox Church. According to the most modest estimates, around 7,000 Ukrainians have been deprived of their freedom without any grounds, solely for political reasons. Among them are clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, journalists, and ordinary citizens who express views that are not in line with the position of the regime.
Not long ago, we all received a letter from Alexander Dubinsky, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament, who is currently accused of treason. The facts he mentioned (including the case of American journalist Gonzalo Lira who was tortured to death in the dungeons of the Kiev regime) were confirmed by international human rights organizations and reflected in the Ukraine 2024 Human Rights Report of the US Department of State.
Just the other day, UNSC members received another letter, this time from journalist Diana Panchenko. She appeals to the UN Secretary-General to take measures to protect political prisoners. She also refers to reports by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which note systematic cases of arbitrary detention, arrests without formal charges, use of torture, and denial of access to justice under the Kiev regime. Attached to the letter is a list of more than 550 victims of political persecution in Ukraine.
Even a quick analysis of the content of these letters allows us to draw a clear conclusion – the Zelensky regime has created a machine of repression, which is rooted in violation of basic human rights and freedoms. This is a system whereby state security agencies, obedient courts, and law enforcement agencies are harnessed by the authorities to intimidate society and quell dissent. How much longer will UNSC members ignore these cries for help, and act as if nothing like this were happening in Ukraine?
How much longer will Western sponsors of the Kiev regime ignore the glaring evidence of rampant corruption in the upper crust of the Zelensky regime? Earlier this week, some Western media outlets reported that a former investigator of Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, who fled to Europe, managed to take with her thousands of pages of internal documents that expose corruption schemes in the highest echelons of Ukrainian power. Elena K. (last name is not disclosed) headed a task force tracing offshore assets. The selectively published sales contracts and information regarding bank transfers have confirmed that Zelensky and his posse used an extensive network of shell companies to “launder” illegal income to subsequently purchase luxury real estate abroad. We are talking about more than $1.2 billion and hundreds of properties, including in Spain, the UK, France, and Italy. I am sure that this is only the tip of the iceberg, but this is also something that the West is stubbornly trying to ignore. Do you really fail to grasp that by keeping such rotten, corrupt, and misanthropic regimes afloat you only compromise what remains of your reputation in the world?
Mr. President,
If our Western colleagues were capable of telling the truth, they would have long ago acknowledged that for many years the West has been creating in Ukraine direct threats to the security of the Russian Federation, essentially condoning the actions of the Kiev regime aimed at exterminating everything Russian and all Russian-speaking population on Ukrainian territory. By doing so, the Kiev regime grossly violated the UN Charter (which requires protecting human rights, including linguistic and religious rights), as well as numerous international conventions, and the Constitution of Ukraine itself. If the West acknowledged this, it would be an excellent starting point for a lasting and sustainable settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. That has not yet happened, but there is a ray of hope coming from the fact that some of our partners, primarily in the US, are increasingly recognizing the need to address the root causes of the conflict, without which the crisis wouldn’t be resolved.
Such trends, which manifested themselves, inter alia, during the recent Russian-American summit in Alaska, are causing sleepless nights not only for the Zelensky regime, but also for his European patrons. That is why they spare no effort now to play down the positive understandings reached in Alaska, or at least distort them. This is most evident when it comes to security issues. In this regard, I would like to declare unacceptable any new attempts to resolve collective security issues without Russia's involvement and without due regard to our interests and concerns. It is precisely such attempts that have provoked the crisis in the Euro-Atlantic region, with no solution to it in sight so far.
We have repeatedly explained our position of principle regarding this issue, the cornerstone here is mutual respect and equality. We oppose any encroachment on the sovereignty and independence of other states and will not tolerate such attempts vis-à-vis Russia. We will firmly and resolutely defend our legitimate security interests.
Under the guise of “security guarantees,” the collective West is promoting one-sided, essentially neocolonial initiatives to deter Russia. This applies to the inherently unfeasible European plans for further militarization of Ukraine and the build-up of NATO's military presence in the Black Sea region, including airspace patrols. At the same time, we see shameless proposals to limit the number of guarantor countries to the key NATO states.
Colleagues,
Providing security guarantees is not a condition, but rather the result of a peaceful settlement following the removal of the root causes of the conflict in Ukraine. “Security guarantees” in the form they are articulated by our former European partners would only contribute to the further degradation of strategic stability at the regional and global levels.
In this regard, it is worth recalling the initiative of the Ukrainian side itself, which was proposed in April 2022 in Istanbul. Back then, the Ukrainian negotiating team outlined the basic principles of agreements on ending hostilities and ensuring a sustainable settlement. These principles included Ukraine's refusal to join NATO or any other military blocs, as well as the confirmation of its neutral and non-nuclear status. In this context, the Ukrainian side proposed, and our delegation agreed to develop security guarantees, the parties to which would be all UNSC permanent members, as well as certain states that may be interested in joining this group of security guarantors.
Obviously, Kiev's proposal presupposed that these guarantees would be equal and that the security of all parties concerned, including Ukraine's neighbors, would be ensured on an equal and indivisible basis. We supported this option, the document was initialed, and we were about to sign an official agreement. We do not oppose this proposal even now and are ready to consider it, unlike many other formulas under discussion today that essentially boil down to NATO countries buttressing what remains of Ukraine, and probably even deploying their military contingents there. This is totally unacceptable to Russia, as it could trigger an unchecked escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences. Those who advance such ideas are not interested in resolving the crisis, they rather want to perpetuate it, possibly through temporarily freezing the conflict. This is not at all what we discussed in Alaska.
We also note many attempts to distort the idea of holding a Russian-Ukrainian summit, as well as assertions that Russia is allegedly not ready for such a step. On the contrary, we have repeatedly confirmed that we can consider such a scenario, but only on condition that such a meeting is thoroughly prepared and has substantive content. Otherwise, it would be simply meaningless. We are ready to work in any format assuming that our interaction must be honest and in good faith.
A possible Russian-Ukrainian high-level meeting could draw up mutual agreements that would be underpinned by relevant steps and measures that are well understood following the Alaska summit. However, what can we talk about if Mr. Zelensky is publicly saying that he is not willing to discuss, for example, the territorial question? Thus, he is throwing down the gauntlet to the US President Donald Trump, who has openly stated that this issue should be up for negotiation. The head of the Kiev regime has also announced quite unequivocally that no one can bar Ukraine from joining NATO, which also runs counter to what was said by President Trump. Zelensky also has no intention of repealing laws that de facto ban the Russian language, destroy Russian culture, education, Russian-language media, and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. If the expired Ukrainian president is not prepared for such a discussion and, in general, does not want to make any compromises, as he himself has repeatedly stressed over the past ten days, then it is not entirely clear why he is insisting on having a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. President,
To reach mutually agreeable solutions that would exclude the recurrence of the conflict, we need greater diplomatic efforts. I would like to remind you that during the third round of the resumed Istanbul negotiation track on July 23, we proposed that the Ukrainian side consider the establishment of three working groups on political, humanitarian, and military issues. We believe that this would allow us to more thoroughly examine the agenda items, which would be helpful in terms of bringing our positions closer together and agreeing on particulars resolving the Ukrainian crisis. More than a month has elapsed since then, but we still have no response from Ukraine.
We believe that this matter and the course of the negotiations in Istanbul in general to be something of a litmus test for what Kiev is really interested in – is it diplomatic work, or hollow publicity and sabotage of constructive mediation efforts?
Thank you.
