Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on Ukraine
Mme.President,
This meeting is taking place against a rather noteworthy backdrop. Hastened by Western sponsors (to whom Ukraine has to report on effectiveness of using the delivered arms and munition), Ukrainian armed forces have been carrying out a suicidal “counter-offensive” against Russian positions for almost a month now. This has already cost them tens of thousand of mobilized personnel, a few hundred armored vehicles, and has been nick-named “Zaporozhye meat-grinder”, by analogy with the “Bakhmut meat-grinder”, where the Kiev regime was sending off Ukrainian soldiers to a certain death in the course of several months. The purpose of this was to prove it to Western weapon suppliers that Ukraine be capable of defeating Russia. What they did prove was the exact opposite. However, Zelensky and his clique avoid recalling this today.
Now they have a more ambitious task – turn a complete failure and a debacle into a victory (the Ukrainian word is “peremoga”). To address this task, Washington, London, and Brussels are joining in, though they never gave any thought either to Ukraine as such or to its interests. Against the current developments, it becomes even more obvious that Western capitals are only interested in Ukraine as a tool to weaken or at least deter Russia.
For the same reason, they will not allow the puppet regime in Kiev to say a word about peace. At least, not before they are out of Ukrainians. They undermined the peace talks once already – in March last year. The President of Russia spoke about it in detail at his recent meeting with African leaders. We will talk more about the criminal policies of our former Western partners in Ukraine next Thursday. By all means, this topic is worth a separate meeting.
Speaking about humanitarian aspects in Ukraine, we should point out the catastrophic effect of the destruction of the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, which will have lasting implications for both Russian and Ukraine. Ecosystems undergo dramatic changes that will directly influence the lifestyles in the affected regions. An irreparable damage to the environment, including that of the Black Sea, is being caused.
Clearly, those in Kiev who are standing behind this terrorist attack and who are fixated in their inglorious “counter-offensive”, keep the interests of their people and the future of their country in the lowest possible regard. During the time that has passed since the tragedy, even more obvious evidence has surfaced that proves the responsibility of Zelensky’s regime and complicity of Western sponsors in this crime. For as we all know, Ukrainian armed forces can fire HIMARS (weapons system that was used to hit the dam) only once Washington gives clearance for a specific target. We provided an account of all those facts and evidence in our letter that was circulated as an official UNSC and UNGA document.
In this context, we must note how disappointed we are with the manner in which our global Organizations has been acting. We warned the Secretary-General about the plot of the Kiev regime regarding the Kakhovka dam in our letter dated 21 October last year. However no action was taken. Praised UN prevention – I wonder where it has been. No one reached out to Ukraine to do some “preventive work”. Why?
Instead, UN officials denounce the lack of humanitarian access to Russian territories that suffered after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed. Let me clarify the issue and remind of a few aspects that the UN either silences down or distorts.
Since February 2022, Russia has actively advocated the continuation of international humanitarian assistance through the United Nations and the ICRC to the civilian population in Donbas, who have been forced to live under shelling and in a complete isolation by the Kiev regime for several years. Moscow interacted with humanitarians on a regular basis, representatives of UN OCHA were also invited.
However, the high-sounding rhetoric of UN officials about the willingness to help people in need led to no practical results or concrete efforts. UN leadership does not and never did consider other options to deliver aid to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions rather than from Kiev and across the line of contact. The main reason behind such a rigid approach is not humanitarian but political. To goal is not to help people, but to demonstrate that the regime in Kiev allegedly retains control over these territories.
For our part, we continuously turned the attention of UN representatives to the lack of security conditions on the ground against the backdrop of active combat, high risks of sabotage and provocations, and mine contamination. In fact, all this makes crossline access impossible. We repeatedly offered to consider options to deliver aid from within Russia via the established routes which already have been used for supply support of the Donbas. The UN turned down all our proposals – to the advantage of Kiev and its Western sponsors.
We once again point at the double standards and clear politicizing of humanitarian tasks. Under a slogan of caring for civilian population, a political order is being fulfilled obediently and without second thought.
After Ukraine blew up the Kakhovka dam, a large-scale humanitarian operation was carried out in the Kherson Region. EMERCOM of Russia rescued almost 2 thousand people, including hundreds of children. More than 6 thousand people have been evacuated from 36 flooded settlements. Even Ukraine recognized effectiveness of our efforts, albeit indirectly – by trying to pass off the work of our rescue teams as their own efforts.
While Russia is doing its best to rescue residents of the affected areas and provide them with everything they need, the Kiev authorities continue to target civil facilities. On June 10, the Ukrainian armed forces struck an evacuation assembly point in the Kherson region with British Storm Shadow missiles killing a woman.
While leaving such heinous crimes of the Kiev regime without attention, the United Nations also tries to ignore the explosion at the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipe, which is the key channel for unimpeded export of Russian fertilizer to the global market, which the UN Secretariat claims to be so bothered about.
This being said, the Secretariat tries hard to keep afloat the “grain deal” despite its clearly commercial rather than humanitarian nature, and also despite the fact that its Russian part was never implemented. The blast at the pipeline dotted all i’s. USG DiCarlo is quick to accuse Russia, but when it comes to the crimes of Ukraine, the Secretariat demonstrates remarkable ignorance. Let me remind you that the explosion of the ammonia pipeline was carried out on Ukrainian territory. Or do you want to attribute the destruction of our own ammonia pipeline to us again? We are ready to continue helping the developing countries in need both with grain and fertilizers, but we will not cover the commercial supplies of grain from Ukraine to the well-off Western countries under the slogans of protecting the interests of those in need. The poorest countries, contrary to what USG said, received less than 3% of all food deliveries.
Colleagues,
Against the backdrop of its failed “counter-offensive”, the Kiev regime resorts to its favored tactic trying to attract the attention of Western public with a high-profile crime or staged provocation, responsibility for which they shift to Russia. This was the case with Bucha in April 2022. And this is also one of the goals why the Kakhovka dam was destroyed. Therefore, increasingly frequent paranoid assertions of the leaders of the Kiev regime that Russia has allegedly mined the Zaporozhye NPP and is about to blow it up are extremely alarming. The IAEA Mission headed by Director-General Grossi, who recently visited the ZNPP despite all obstacles created by Ukraine, could make sure of the absurdity of such assertions.
We would want to believe that Kiev’s Western sponsors will be able to check Ukraine and prevent a disaster that may affect the most part of Europe. Zelensky and his clique made it clear on numerous occasions that they do not care either for Ukraine or for Europe.
Mme.President,
You might have noticed that since the so-called Ukrainian counter-offensive started, most complaints of the Kiev regime to their Western sponsors were centered around a lack of air-defense systems and missiles. Quite remarkably, those complaints coincided with an almost complete cessation of reports of alleged Russian missile and drone attacks on residential buildings and facilities in Ukrainian cities. The last such high-profile episode occurred in Odessa on June 14, when a Ukrainian air defense missile struck the upper floors of a residential building, causing destruction and casualties. Such reports have disappeared from the information space, despite the fact that strikes against military infrastructure in Ukrainian cities occur almost daily. All of this confirms what we have been warning about for a long time and what the citizens of Ukraine know very well: the main, if not the only, danger to Ukrainian cities is posed by the Ukrainian air defense systems that are deployed in violation of international humanitarian law. Wherever there is no such systems or they are deployed outside the cities, blasts occur only at ammunition depots, military barracks and other military facilities, as well as energy infrastructure facilities involved in the supply of Western weapons to the frontline.
Strikes against them will continue as part of one of the goals of the special military operation, which is to demilitarize Ukraine. Those strikes have already left Ukraine – almost completely – without weapons of its own, and the Kiev regime is now almost exclusively dependent on Western supplies. However, we will talk about this in detail next Thursday.
Mme.President,
Some countries – the United States, Albania, and the United Kingdom – said today that Russia carried out a provocation having struck Kiev with missiles during the visit of an African delegation that went to the Ukrainian capital to present a peace plan. However African leaders on the delegation refuted claims of the Kiev regime about a missile attack on Kiev during their visit. This is another staged provocation by Ukrainian authorities. Here is a quote from a Ukrainian news portal. “South African delegation headed by President Cyril Ramaphosa denies Russia’s missile attack. This is according to Spokesperson to RSA President, Vincent Magwenya. He said he was recording a video at the hotel in Kiev when the so-called explosion took place”. Now, here is a quote of what the Spokesperson said. “It's very strange that we didn't hear or see an explosion. There's obviously some deliberate misinformation being spread here. [During the air alert] people were going on about their day. As we expected this mission was never going to be easy but some of the hurdles are deeply disturbing and others outright amusing, like this so-called explosion”. When asked whether he would refute the reports about explosions in Kiev Magwenya said, “From my own experience and those I am travelling with, yes, I am disputing it. We were all perplexed when we were taken back to the hotel and passed streets where people were going on about their day as normal. It's very strange and is, in a way, deliberate misinformation”.
This shows how Ukrainian propaganda and disinformation works, and how happy Kiev’s Western sponsors are to catch up on that.
Mme.President,
Today we see yet another attempt by the US and its allies to force the UN Secretariat to conduct a so-called "investigation" into the alleged supply of Iranian drones for use in Ukraine. Before this meeting, we already presented our assessments to the journalists. In brief, both we and the Iranians categorically deny these allegations. The Kiev regime has not provided us or the Iranians, who agreed to bilateral consultations for this purpose, with any more or less convincing evidence. Attempts to drag the so-called "Team 2231" into this adventure may cast doubt on the commitment of the UN Secretariat to Article 100 of the UN Charter. Team 2231 is neither a Sanctions Committee nor a panel of experts. Its members have not been appointed by member states as experts in specific disarmament or other areas. We hope that the Secretary-General has the wisdom not to go along with our former Western partners.
Mme.President,
Yesterday, Russia marked the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. On this day 82 years ago Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. 27 million Soviet people died in the fight against the Nazi aggressor. Today German tanks are again in Ukraine shooting at our soldiers. The only difference is that the Nazi regime that has a stronghold in Kiev is backed not only by Germany, but also the United States and its NATO allies. What has not changed over those years is their hatred towards our country, their willingness to inflict a strategic defeat upon us, take away our natural resources and enslave our entire nation. These plans are doomed to failure exactly as they were doomed more than 80 years ago. So now as it was back then, German tanks and other Western equipment are burning in Ukrainian steppes. They are burning together with the delusive hopes of newly-sprung Nazis and their sponsors to defeat Russia. Like 80 years ago, they will be bitterly disappointed.
Thank you.
