Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine
Mr. President,
Before I start my statement, I would like to reiterate once again that members of the European Union are moving forward unacceptable practice inviting under rule 37 an excessive number of delegations representing the European Union and NATO. We have already stated many times that there is no added value in inviting so many states of one block to our meetings. Today, once again, we will hear the same narratives or rather the rehashing of the earlier statements. We regret the fact that the French presidency decided to disregard the rules of procedure of the Council.
Mr. President,
The formal reason for the European supporters of the Kiev regime to convene today's UNSC meeting was the April 4 strike by the Russian Armed Forces at a restaurant in Krivoi Rog. According to the reports by the Russian Ministry of Defense, a high-precision strike by a high-explosive missile was launched on the location where unit commanders met with their Western instructors, and resulted in the enemy's losses amounted to up to 85 servicemen and foreign officers, and about 20 vehicles.
There is no denying the fact that the operation did cause damage to the command of both the Ukrainian armed forces and a number of NATO armies that had sent their instructors to Ukraine. In this context, we would like to recall that we have warned on many occasions that troop concentrations as well as Western officers and instructors sent to assist the Kiev regime are legitimate targets for the Russian army.
Unfortunately, due to unprofessional actions of the Ukrainian air defense, it was the Ukrainian intercepting missile that caused the death of civilians in the area adjacent to the restaurant. In any case, this is precisely what is indicated by the characteristics of the missile fragments that can be seen on the images provided by those who witnessed the deaths of the people near the restaurant. The very fact that a military meeting was held in a building located in an urban densely-populated area is something that also demonstrates the blatant disregard of the Kiev regime for the lives of Ukrainian civilians, who are being used essentially as human shields to cover for Kiev’s military activities.
The intended military target was hit, which was confirmed both by objective monitoring means and by Ukrainian users on social media. But despite this fact, the Kiev regime immediately tried to shift the focus away from tangible military losses only to accuse Russia of allegedly targeting the civilian population and civilian infrastructure of Ukraine. According to them, cluster munitions were presumably used for that purpose.
As we can see from today's meeting in particular, this version has been actively taken up by the European sponsors of the Kiev regime. We have already repeatedly encountered situations whereby the Ukrainian propaganda machine has tried to pass off the consequences of the flawed operation of its own air defense systems as allegedly deliberate strikes by the Russian air force against civilian infrastructure. However, these cases, like today's one, are easily debunked thanks to video clips recorded and posted on the Internet by ordinary people.
Let me recall just a few cases. For example, back in November 2022, we were accused of purposeful destruction of residential buildings in Kiev and Vyshgorod, which was quickly refuted by leaked videos showing the operation of air defense. In July 2023, there came a story about the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa: there were plenty of videos on the Internet showing that an air defense missile was launched but failing to gain altitude, it immediately went down and exploded, and in the flash of the explosion you can clearly see the spire of the belfry. Or there were assiduous attempts to place on Russia the blame for the July 2024 strike on the Okhmatdet children's hospital, despite the fact that eyewitnesses filmed the very moment a Ukrainian air defense missile hit the building. This also includes the attempts to pass off the March 24 school bombing in Sumy as a targeted strike by the Russian Armed Forces against civilian infrastructure. At the last meeting of the Security Council, we convincingly debunked this fake as well.
Even now, the claims by the Kiev regime are being refuted by what Ukrainian users are recording and posting on social networks. In particular, they clearly show a large amount of smoke and dust, which clearly indicates that there was used a blast fragmentation warhead rather than a cluster munition. If this had been a cluster munition strike, there would have been no explosion cloud at all. Instead, there would have been the sound of explosions from submunitions in the sky, and in the eyewitnesses’ videos there are no such sounds.
I would like to reiterate again today what we have already stated many times in this chamber. The Russian military is targeting exclusively military objects and facilities having to do with military capabilities of the Kiev regime. We have pointed out on numerous occasions that the Zelensky regime continues deploying air defense systems in residential areas of Ukrainian residential areas. I would like to put a question to USG Tom Fletcher: is that not a violation of IHL? Why is OCHA silent about it? In the vast majority of cases, it is precisely due to Ukrainian air defense that civilians are killed or suffer. In this regard, we strongly recommend to all civilians to stay as far away as possible from places where Ukrainian or Western military groups are gathering, since a strike on such a perfectly legitimate military target could be delivered at any point of time.
Ukrainians, of course, are not being told the truth about what has happened. The Kiev clique will spare no effort to milk the tragedy they are responsible for to maximize the propaganda effect, and our meeting today is an important element of this strategy. A good illustration of that is the very day after the incident, when Mr. Budanov, head of Intelligence of Ukraine, had an interview (published on YouTube), wherein he literally uttered the following: “There is absolutely no need to know the whole truth. Otherwise, people may come up with different opinions.” He also added that information should be provided in small doses, and people can only expect to find out the truth much later. There is no point in commenting on such utterances – they speak for themselves. Of course, no one is going to tell the Ukrainians about the atrocities committed by the nationalists in the border region of Kursk Oblast (part of Kursk Oblast has been held by Ukrainian forces since the beginning of August 2024, and now they are being actively pushed out from there by Russian troops). After the hamlet of Guevo was liberated this morning, the Ukrainian army retains control only over two border villages. We spoke in detail about the crimes of the Ukrainian Nazis at the UNSC informal “Arria formula” meeting on April 2. Nor is anybody going to tell the Ukrainian citizens about the incessant shelling of Russian border towns, which in the past week alone left eight civilians dead and 106 people wounded.
Mr. President,
We would like to note that information about strikes on Ukrainian military facilities in Ukrainian cities is being presented today by the Zelensky regime as evidence that Russia is allegedly not ready for peace and is torpedoing peace initiatives proposed by the new US administration. It is quite clear that such moves are geared solely towards undermining the US-Russian dialogue and derailing possible agreements that the Kiev regime will have to accept. I have to disappoint you – what you are doing is way too obvious and your claims are a far cry from the truth to believe you. You do nothing but expose yourselves when you argue that a possible ceasefire should be used to pump Ukraine with weapons and bring in fresh reserves to the front – thus, you only show that your interest is not in stopping hostilities but in allowing Ukraine to “lick its wounds” and with renewed vigor resume the war until the last Ukrainian in pursuit of your geopolitical goals.
The scenario that is being discussed by Russia and the United States, of course, has nothing to do with the above-mentioned – but it does have to do with finding a sustainable, lasting solution to the Ukrainian conflict. And what is needed for that is addressing the root causes of the conflict, including pumping Ukraine with Western weaponry, which started – as we all know today – long before the special military operation of ours began, and was carried out under the guise of the “Minsk agreements”. We are willing to have a serious and practical dialogue, but we will not allow anyone to deceive us or use (directly or indirectly) this negotiating process to strengthen the military potential of the Kiev regime. As we have repeatedly stated, demilitarization is one of the goals of our special military operation, and it will be implemented through either military or negotiation means, so that Ukraine poses no threat to Russia any longer.
Accordingly, our negotiation process on issues related to the Ukrainian settlement continues in full compliance with UNSC resolution 2774 adopted on February 24.
At the same time, as we agreed with the new American team, Russia has refrained from strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since March 18, which is not the case with the Zelensky regime that continues shelling Russian energy facilities basically on a daily basis. Between April 4 and April 7 alone, there were 32 such attacks. How does this tally with the ceasefire proposal put forward by President Trump? This proves once again that the current Ukrainian leadership is unable to negotiate – they lost their legitimacy almost a year ago, and we become increasingly convinced that it is impossible to reach agreement with the clique that usurped power in Kiev. We hope that our American colleagues also understand that, and now they have an excellent opportunity to see for themselves the true intentions of those who the British-European “party of war” is still banking on.
Thank you.
