Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC Briefing on Ukraine
Mr. President,
Today, once again, we have gathered here to tick the box and register the “Council’s unflagging attention” to the Ukrainian issue. Permanent Representative Mr. Melnik has surely prepared yet another proverb in the Russian language, borderline obscene. Let me give you a piece of advice, free of charge: when using Russian proverbs, learn the words from the original source, since your quotations from Russian folklore do not always come out accurately.
Mr. President,
Kiev shows no intention whatsoever to meaningfully move forward towards a settlement. The negotiation process is at a stalemate. Zelensky must order a ceasefire, withdraw the Ukrainian troops from Russian regions, including the Donbass, and proceed to discuss the specific parameters of a genuinely comprehensive, just, and lasting peace. Until he realizes this, it is for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to pursue the objectives of the special military operation.
It is obvious that European countries are vigorously egging on Zelensky’s stubbornness. We have repeatedly stated that London and Brussels have only one objective: to secure the continuation of the conflict by Ukraine, to make the conflict drag on and on, and to inflict as much damage as possible on Russia. The Europeans have no “Plan B,” and any talk about Kaja Kallas possibly mediating negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is nothing but mockery. This Madam Euro diplomat has no understanding whatsoever of what diplomacy is about. And as for mediators – all the more European ones – we haven’t asked for any.
And the United Nations finds itself in a completely helpless situation of its own making. By adopting at one time a biased, anti-Russian stance and choosing to align itself with the habitual Western attitudes, the UN leadership has closed off the possibility for itself to contribute to the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. For example, it has been four years now that we have been asking the UN Secretary-General to assist in obtaining the list of victims of the Bucha hoax. In essence, he and his subordinates, without any investigation whatsoever, pinned all the blame on Russia. This is not merely an incident, but a deliberate fabrication, which was used by its masterminds to derail the peace talks in 2022. On May 1, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent yet another letter to Secretary-General Guterres, which contained 12 clear questions. We expect equally clear answers to these questions, not the boilerplate responses we have seen time and again in the past.
The administration of the US President is trying to help. Donald Trump, by all accounts, is sincerely striving to reach a resolution. But Washington also has many other priority tasks. We are grateful for the US support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative for a ceasefire on May 8 to mark Victory Day, which is a sacred holiday to all peoples of the former Soviet Union. Many Russian citizens were able to celebrate this great holiday in peace. It was heartening also to see Ukrainians laying flowers at monuments to the liberating soldiers on this day. Nothing could stop these brave people: neither Zelensky’s sacrilegious clowning around the Victory Day Parade, nor the glorification of Nazis and collaborators, nor the destruction of monuments.
Mr. President,
The Kiev regime has not for a single moment ceased its terrorist attacks against the civilian population – yes, they are targeting civilians, not military objects – and they are using all available weaponry supplied by Western sponsors, who have thus become complicit in the deaths of innocent people. For example, in April, Ukrainian fighters killed more than 100 civilians and wounded another 667 people. Last week, the Ukrainian army carried out a massive terrorist attack on civilian targets in the Ryazan region, and over the weekend – on Moscow.
From May 9 to 11, Ukraine violated the ceasefire more than 30,000 times. Even during the truce (which they themselves had declared), in the early hours of May 6, the Ukrainian army continued shelling civilians in Russia. Between May 5 and 11, 25 civilians were killed, including one child, and 209 people were wounded, including 14 children.
Most Security Council members are either unaware of these facts or will deliberately avoid discussing them. But, again and again, they will play into Kiev’s hands, placing all the blame on Russia.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, from May 12 to 15, our country’s Armed Forces carried out a massive strike and two group strikes using high-precision long-range weapons, including hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles. In response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks on civilian targets on Russian territory, strikes were launched against Ukrainian defense industry facilities, fuel, energy, and transport infrastructure used by the Ukrainian army, UAV assembly and launch sites, warehouses for ammunition and fuel, and points of temporary deployment for Ukrainian units and foreign mercenaries.
Western handlers of Kiev are well aware that Ukrainian ABM missiles, when they miss their targets, fall on civilian objects, resulting in the deaths and injuries of peaceful Ukrainians. Despite this, not only do they fail to undertake any efforts to prevent potential tragedies, but also they do everything to escalate the conflict: they scale up arms supplies, transfer weapons production to their own territory, and turn a blind eye to the use of their countries’ airspace for the overflight of drones.
Moreover, according to new data obtained by Russian intelligence agencies, Kiev does not intend to limit itself to using the air corridors provided by the Baltic States. There are also plans to launch drones from territories of those countries.
Zelensky has already convinced Riga to give consent to such an operation, assuring that it will be impossible to pinpoint the exact location of the launch. Soldiers from the Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) have already been deployed to Latvia. They are stationed at the Latvian military bases in Adazi, Selija, Lielvarde, Daugavpils, and Jekabpils.
I would like to appeal to anyone considering aiding Kiev to carry out their terrorist attacks on Russian territory: modern intelligence means make it possible to reliably identify the UAV’s launch coordinates. Credible data can also be obtained through examining the wreckage of drones, as was the case with the Zelensky regime’s attempted drone attack targeting the Russian President’s residence last December. Under such circumstances, a retaliatory strike will be inevitable.
And yes, Ms. Permanent Representative of Latvia, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service did say that the coordinates of the decision-making center in Latvia are well known, and even the country’s membership in NATO will not protect terrorist enablers from just retribution.
I now address the reasonable members of the Security Council: don’t be fooled by the lamentations over the suffering of peaceful Ukrainians. In reality, we see so-called European “leaders” donning the robes of peacemakers, while their statements imbued with off-the-charts Russophobia leave no doubt that they are conducting accelerated preparations for war with Russia, inculcating in the people of their countries the idea that a peaceful settlement in Ukraine would inevitably lead to attacks by Russia on Europe. This reckless rhetoric is being used to justify the financing of the Kiev regime at the expense of the pressing needs of ordinary Europeans.
Mr. President,
Our today’s meeting would not be complete unless we highlight what is currently happening within the top leadership in Ukraine. Zelensky ran for president under the slogan that he was a “servant of the people.” However, recently, we see more and more facts coming to the surface, attesting to the monstrous corruption among his posse, who have long been portrayed by Western press as symbols of the “new, anti-corruption Ukraine”. These are not isolated abuses by individual officials, but a large-scale institutional model, which is embedded in Ukraine’s power machinery and directly linked to the distribution of Western financial and military aid. These funds were spent not on social programs or infrastructure reconstruction, but rather on luxury real estate and offshore accounts. Never will the Kiev regime wash itself clean from the monstrous schemes exposed during the Operation ‘Midas’ and recorded on the so-called “Mindich tapes.” We do not have any doubts that the EU-approved two-year assistance package of €90 billion will also be plundered.
Against this backdrop, the continued forced mobilization campaign appears particularly appalling. Last week in Kharkov, a married couple – when they brought their daughter to school – were shoved into a minibus by unknown men in military uniforms under the outraged shouts of witnesses. Eyewitnesses shouted – “The man is unwell, the child is crying,” and in response, they received pepper spray in their faces. Another incident took place in Dnepropetrovsk earlier this month: a man fell into a coma as a result of a traumatic brain injury inflicted by employees of a territorial center of recruitment. The official version of the incident is that “the man fell himself and hit his head.” In the Dnepropetrovsk region, another 43-year-old man was hospitalized with severe injuries literally a few hours after he was mobilized, and later he died. The recruitment center claimed that he allegedly had an epileptic seizure, but he had never suffered from epilepsy. In Odessa, there was a gang consisting of employees of recruitment centers and police officers – they were engaged in extortion and beatings of those liable for military service.
All of this clearly demonstrates that Ukraine has neither “servants of the people” nor “beacons of democracy”– there is only a group of criminals bound by a thirst for money and power. They are turning their own people into slaves, as these lives are worthless to them. The so-called “collective West,” which fostered this regime and continues to finance it, bears full responsibility not only for the conflict it provoked, but also for the lives of all these people.
Thank you.
