Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on Ukraine
Mme.President,
The main reason why we called this meeting was to raise again the issue of Western donors’ uncurtailed supply of various sorts of weapons to their beneficiaries in Kiev and its impact on settlement prospects of the Ukrainian crisis. As for the genesis of the crisis, our invited briefer, Mr. George Szamuely, provided a very professional account of that. We have offered to the Council to consider this topic almost every month, and every time there are more episodes that are worth raising. Recently, Ukrainian and American officials reported that Kiev had received more than $100 billion worth of military and other assistance from the US and its allies. After last week’s visit by Secretary of State Blinken to Ukraine, another “handout” of over 1 billion was announced.
The Ukrainian regime is begging for more weapons with redoubled vigor and undisguised insolence, trying to blame the obvious failure of the so-called counter-offensive that has been under way since early June on Western countries. For that purpose, Kiev employs a variety of tricks and methods. Just before the arrival of Secretary Blinken last week, Zelensky’s regime, according to a well-established scheme, committed a deadly provocation – a missile attack on a market in Konstantinovka, which they immediately tried to blame on Russia. However, some facts that were caught on CСTV cameras and then shared on the Internet thwarted the calculations of those who stood behind this provocation. The video clearly shows that the missile had arrived from areas controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces. As a result, the Kiev regime and its sponsors are trying to hush up this story and keep it off radar. Just as they did after they had botched up a similar provocation in Kramatorsk in April 2022, having shelled a railway terminal there. Accounts by witnesses to this crime on social media unequivocally pointed to the guilt of Ukrainian forces.
Against the backdrop of obvious failures on the frontline, which cannot be concealed anymore, it seems that the leaders of the Kiev regime started to lose their nerve. Thus, in a recent interview with the Economist, the head of the Kiev junta, V.Zelensky, lamented the rapidly declining support for Ukraine among the voters in Western countries and slipped into direct threats: "There is no way of predicting how the millions of Ukrainian refugees in European countries would react to their country being abandoned." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba also snapped into rudeness, and in response to the words of his German counterpart A.Baerbock who said that her country had not yet decided on the delivery of long-range Taurus missiles, he responded as follows, "You will do it anyway, it’s just a matter of time, and I don't understand why we are wasting time." We already got accustomed to the fact that Ukraine has been wiping its feet on Germany, ever since Chancellor Scholz became a "resentful liverwurst." However, such low conduct in interstate contacts is still quite rare.
Yesterday, Advisor to the Head of the Office of Ukrainian President M.Podolyak called the United Nations a money-making enterprise that is not capable of performing its initial functions. Here is what he said. “We will not see them recognize their own meaninglessness. In fact, the United Nations is an absent Organization. I would say, the UN is a PR or a lobby company to make money for a good old age for the people in senior positions. Emotions that the UN brings out, just like any other international institution (IAEA, ICRC, Amnesty International) will always be negative. Those are all bogus firms that pollute our minds with absolutely rubbish assessments. If those did not exist, we probably would be able to address many issues in a more effective and speedy manner.” This is how the Kiev regime has started to lose its self-control in the face of an imminent military and political bankruptcy.
Such nervousness of Kiev’s clique is understandable. Despite the fact that Western sponsors’ support for Ukraine has reached an unprecedented level, there are virtually no deliverables Ukraine can offer. We already mentioned the so-called counter-offensive that is clearly failing. The equipment that has been supplied to the Kiev regime is “burning blue”. That includes the much-touted American armored vehicles “Bradly”, German tanks “Leopard” and British “Challengers”. By the way, we would recommend to our British colleagues to update info on the Defense Ministry website. It still says that not a single Challenger has been destroyed on the battlefield. At least two have been destroyed in Ukraine. 12 are still roaming about out there, but their destiny will be the same. Just like that of American “Abrams” or F-16 machines. Many leading experts are raising their voices to warn that there is no sense in channeling more weapons to the Kiev regime against the backdrop of unsurmountable challenges with logistics and technical maintenance. Western military cannot but realize this.
It means that their priority is not a military defeat of Russia, which is impossible by definition, but rather inflicting a maximum damage on our country, as well as causing maximum contamination and damage of the newly-acceded territories. It is similar to what Western colonizers did back in the day, when they applied the “scorched earth” tactic in Africa and Asia, contaminating vast areas of Indochina, Syria, and Afghanistan with mines and unexploded ordinance. They are doing the exact same thing today in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Suffice it to mention Great Britain supplying depleted uranium (DU) projectiles to Ukrainian armed forces this year. In the near term, just as dangerous DU munitions may be transferred to Kiev by the United States who by all appearances is laying down the groundwork for delivering Abramses to Ukraine. We are seeing a hypocritical awareness campaign in the West which asserts that depleted uranium shells allegedly pose no health risks. Soon enough, they will try to convince everyone of depleted uranium being rather healthsome. In this connection, let me just briefly remind you of a trial in Italy with regard to the intoxication of more than 7 thousand military personnel during the use of DU by NATO forces in Yugoslavia. 400 of them died. Of course, it had implications for the Serbs, but no one in the West has ever raised that.
Let’s take a moment to look into the issue of cluster munitions that the United States has been supplying to Kiev in bulk. Among other things, this is explained by the fact that NATO ammo depots run low on conventional munitions. To the public, they serve it in such a way that US-manufactured cluster munitions are high tech products that allegedly pose no threat to civilians, whereas all the other cluster ammo is “bad” and dangerous due to its high share of unexploded submunitions.
Of course, this runs counter to basic facts. Thus, Human Rights Watch says in a report that last year 95% of victims of cluster munitions were civilians, first of all in Iraq, Libya, Laos, Lebanon, Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine. 71% of all victims were children. Among them the residents of Izyum who died in a 2022 UAF shelling. We dwelt on this is detail at the previous meeting. As far as the decision of the United States to supply cluster bombs to Ukraine, HRW called it “unconscionable”.
In response to that, Biden Administration is reported to be preparing to deliver to Kiev cluster munitions with greater range. This being said, the US Congressional Research Service estimates that up to one-third of the new munitions may fail to explode and remain in the ground as a threat to civilians for many decades. And this is despite the fact that according to the unanimous opinion of military experts, cluster munitions will not give Ukraine an advantage on the battlefield, as they have much less penetrating power than conventional munitions.
Question is, what Washington and London are thinking when they authorize such obvious crimes. And do our colleagues have any remains of conscience? Since they clearly had none when they were razing down to the ground peaceful cities in Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan (and before that in Indochina and other regions), why would they have it now when they are waging a proxy ware on Russia in Ukraine to be fought until the last Ukrainian?
The fact that the United States is the real puppet master behind the Kiev regime received a clear confirmation yesterday from General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He invited a CBS reporter to the Situation Room, from where the real time developments on the battlefield are tracked via satellites. Gen. Milley did not even conceal that the United States transfers all this data to Kiev (including data on location of Russian objects in the rear). So there is no willingness on the part of Washington to terminate this war, the war that allows the Americans to get rich off.
At previous meetings, we have already spoken about the fabulous profits of Western corporations and the fact that a significant part of the funds allocated to Ukraine does not leave the territory of the United States and other Western sponsors of the Kiev regime. Much evidence has recently emerged of unprecedented corruption in these matters.
Speaking of the "gray schemes" that the United States actively used to supply weapons to Ukraine, there is one more worthy mention. Recently, mass media in the US made publications about the role of an American arms dealer, Mark Morales, in this process. Back in 2009, Morales was indicted for money laundering in the United States. Thanks to his contracts with the Pentagon and his personal ties with the Ukrainian military command, the firm he heads has become a crucial link in supplying arms and ammunition for Soviet-made systems to Ukraine. This made Morales richer by a few hundred million dollars. That is, a business person receives contracts from the US Government to supply arms to another state and enjoys patronage of the authorities at home. One can only imagine the scope of corruption schemes that have been carried out not only with the guidance, but also with the direct support of the US authorities. Moreover, according to media, such shadowy cooperation with Ukraine began at least a year before Russia's special military operation.
Colleagues,
Can we expect our money-thirsty American colleagues to give up this extremely profitable business project in the name of peace? It is highly doubtful, since the thirst for profit has already permeated all layers of the American political and business elite.
The New York Times reports that a new factory to manufacture artillery shells for the Ukrainian army is being built in Mesquite (Texas). It is noteworthy that when sensible people started to raise their voices and say that the insane pumping up of armaments to the Kiev regime must stop, they immediately came under harsh criticism from a number of local lawmakers. You know why? The NYT cites one of the opinions: “This creates manufacturing jobs in the United States. How can they confront interests of those whom they represent?” But the NYT shares this view and believes that efforts to arm Ukraine and the insatiable appetite of Kiev for weapons is a good luck and a golden mine for American weapons industry. This situation discloses the rotten core of American position in support of Ukraine: apart from doubtful geopolitical goals this means an opportunity to make money, good money for that matter, out of pain and sufferings of others.
Against this background, Ukraine itself continues to slip into the abyss of a totalitarian dictatorship, where any alternative point of view that is inconvenient to the ruling regime is denied. At the same time, the current authorities in Kiev are building up their policy on top of glorifying Nazi ideology and elevating Hitler's henchmen to the rank of heroes. To all this we must add the corruption that is rampant in the Ukrainian echelons of power, which is only gaining momentum in view of the impressive amounts of financial and other material aid coming from the West. Even Kiev's most ardent allies recognize its alarming scale. One of its ugliest manifestations is the attitude of the Kiev regime towards its own citizens, which manifests itself both in bribes for "excuses" from military service (which of course is not looming for the children of the Ukrainian "elite"), and in a consumerist attitude towards Ukrainian refugees. Basically, it is only in Russia that the refugees can feel protected by the law. According to UNHCR, since February last year, 2,852,000 people have left the territory of Ukraine for Russia. If we add to them approximately three million residents of Donbas who left after the Kiev regime unleashed a civil war in 2014, our country can rightfully be considered one of the main hosts to shelter Ukrainians in distress.
We see a completely different attitude towards Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Despite the high-sounding pledges of assistance from the EU leaders, the rights of Ukrainian refugees are not guaranteed or protected. The most vulnerable categories of citizens, women and children, are exposed to particular danger: separation from their families, involvement in criminal activities and exploitation. Such unpleasant facts are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal.
Besides, Ukrainians also become victims of trafficking in body organs. There is more and more evidence that "black transplantology" is flourishing in the country. The necessary legislative framework has been created in Ukraine for this purpose. Since recently the law "On Regulation of the Issue of Transplantation of Human Anatomical Materials" has been effective, according to which it is no longer required to notarize the written consent of a living donor or their relatives for transplantation. Authentication of signatures is not required. In fact, it allows to extract organs from children as well. The procedure for the removal of organs from deceased persons who had not given an in-life consent to donate their organs after death has been simplified. Permission to extract biological or anatomical materials from the body of a deceased person can be obtained from the responsible individual who undertakes to bury them. For example, from chief medical officer of a hospital or head of a military unit. Not only public, but also private hospitals have been granted the right to do the transplants.
Thanks to another law, organ transplant surgeries are exempt from VAT. Criminals use this "MFN clause" very actively. Trade in body organs is going on in the Darknet, and not only there.
For example, in June 2023, a man was detained on the Ukrainian-Slovak border. As an employee of some charitable organization, he was engaged in trafficking Ukrainian children abroad, including for organ transplants. Rather indicatively, the bail that court set for him amounted to only 1 million hryvnas. Charged with a grave crime, this man paid the bail and walked free. Traces of him are getting lost.
Apparently, the Ukrainian state is covering up a bloody business. Will our former Western partners sound alarm about this? I doubt it.
In this context, it is worth recalling the crimes committed by Kosovo militants with the complicity of their Albanian accomplices and with the connivance of the occupying NATO contingents during the period of aggression against Yugoslavia. In particular, there is documented information that in 1998-2000s militants of the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) kidnapped about 300 Serbs, Roma and disloyal Albanians in the Province. These people were transported to makeshift prisons in Albania via gateway stations, where prisoners in a suitable health condition were picked. Their kidneys and other body organs were removed for further transportation to Europe and sale on the black market. Donors were held near the Albanian town of Fush Kruja. Whenever an order was made, a donor was killed with a shot to the back of the head and their body organs were shipped abroad via the Rinas airport.
Former ICTY Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte described those heinous crimes in a book “Hunt: Me and the War Criminals” (2008) and PACE report (authored by Swiss lawyer D.Marty in 2011) on the atrocities of KLA. On 30 October 2003, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo released confidential insights on the issue.
In April 2004, a delegation from ICTY and UNMIK traveled to the vicinity of Burell in Albania, where witnesses reported organ removal surgeries to have taken place. The delegation visited the so-called "yellow house" in Ripe, where traces of illegal organ removal were found in one of the rooms. But in 2005, the ICTY Prosecutor's Office destroyed all the evidence collected.
It is quite indicative that in 2008, Albania turned down Serbia's offer to start a joint investigation and for many years has avoided allowing Serbian and international experts into its territory. This makes it impossible to locate and identify alleged burials of KLA victims. Indeed, no body – no case.
At the same time, we know that even after 2000, Kosovo transplantologists continued their criminal business in cooperation with organized criminal groups at the Medicus clinic in Pristina. The victims of these criminals were natives of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Since this inhumane business was once "covered up" by the same NATO countries that are in charge of Ukraine today, it is obvious that not only Ukrainian citizens in the territory controlled by the Kiev regime, but also Ukrainian refugees in the EU are exposed to a serious danger. Ukrainian women and their children who have ended up in Europe are under a high risk. We call on international NGOs to pay special attention to protecting their rights and safeguarding them from malevolent entrepreneurs.
Thank you.
Right of reply:
Mme.President,
First, I should like to say that we have heard nothing new today in response to our concrete points regarding the supply of Western arms to Ukraine. Unlike what you said, those do not comply with international obligations. We have already spoken about the numerous violations of a whole range of international arms trade treaties that accompany the supply of these weapons to Ukraine. I will not list them now for we have already addressed this. If you would rather that we turn to this again, we certainly will.
Our Western partners have nothing substantive to say on the matter, which is also evidenced by the fact that there is no queue of European and other delegations signing up on the speakers list for today's meeting on Ukraine, unlike the meetings that you call and that feature endless repetitive speeches.
But I would now like to respond to your last remark, Mme.President, which you made in your national capacity as representative of Albania. You tried to defend Kosovo's militants and cutthroats, contrary to the facts that we had presented to you. And in this connection, I would like to quote the video testimony of Goran Petronijević, a lawyer, former judge of the court of Pech (Metohija district) and the Supreme Court of Serbia, and now Chair of the NGO "Center for the Recovery of International Law", which we received on the eve of today's meeting.
"The (transplant) victims were mostly police officers, soldiers from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, later even Albanian citizens collaborating with the Kosovo Liberation Army, and civilians. Foreign researchers speak of hundreds of victims. Data on missing persons on the territory of Kosovo during that period confirm that the number of victims exceeded one thousand. This criminal activity became particularly widespread in the period from 1998 to 2000. During the NATO aggression against FRY from March 1998 to June 1999, the number of crimes was quite low. After NATO troops entered the territory of Kosovo, the number of crimes increased dramatically. Victims were abducted in Kosovo and placed in medical assessment facilities. The victims were then transported to Albania to specialized camps where they awaited organ removal surgeries. There were more than 10 such camps in Albania. The main perpetrators of these crimes were KLA members who received information from the special services of Albania. In Kosovo, KLA fighters were assisted by NATO representatives. Without NATO’s involvement, the number of victims would not have been that high. The main problem with investigating such crimes on the territory of Albania and Kosovo was that NATO leadership covered up the tracks. There were witnesses who saw the crimes with their own eyes and were going to testify. But as soon as some information about them surfaced, these eye-witnesses disappeared. They included drivers who transported victims from Kosovo to Albania and camp guards. There is evidence that hospitals where organ removals were carried out had some information. One such hospital was located in Tirana. One was even located on a ship moored off the coast of Albania. Depending on which organ needed to be removed for transplanting, the surgery location was chosen. It depended on how long it took to maintain viability of the removed organ, taking into account the distance between the removal and transplanting locations. Based on the financial status of the client, and these were mostly wealthy people from Western Europe, the cost of organs removed could exceed $1 million."
As the saying has it, comments are superfluous. In view of the course of our discussion today, we intend to publish this material on our online resources, so the widest possible international community can become aware.
Thank you.
