Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing regarding the attacks against Belgorod
Mr.President,
Colleagues,
It was just yesterday that we met in this room at the insistence of representatives of the Kiev regime and their sponsors, who tried to pass off the consequences of the unprofessional work of Ukrainian air defense forces as deliberate strikes by the Russian troops against residential areas in Ukrainian cities. We have used concrete examples to expose the falsity of these claims, and you had nothing to object to our arguments.
Let me ask where these people are today. Where are the representatives of EU member states, who come in packs and bunches to request to take the floor at meetings on Ukraine in order to read their tired propaganda on camera? Where is the representative of the Czech Republic, whose missiles killed civilians in Belgorod? We tried to invite the Czech Permanent Representative to address us today, but he cowardly declined to participate. Of course, it is one thing to stand in line to participate in meetings convened by the Kiev regime and its sponsors to promote anti-Russian propaganda, but it is quite another to take responsibility for the actions of one's own Government. We want the citizens of the Czech Republic, as well as other Western countries, the vast majority of which are not hostile to Russia, to understand where their money is going and what crimes their governments are involved in. Where is the representative of Poland, who yesterday told us about the missile that flew into its territory, which 500 soldiers of the territorial defense troops of the Lublin province were looking for and could not find? Where is the representative of the European Union? Make no illusions and drop the pretenses. Brussels, along with Washington and London, as well as the majority of EU countries, are complicit in the crimes committed by the Kiev clique.
Today members of the Security Council have a chance to do their duty and give an objective assessment of the terrorist attack of the Kiev regime against the peaceful Russian city of Belgorod that took place a few hours ago. The city center and residential neighborhoods of Belgorod were shelled with cluster munitions from multiple rocket launchers from the border town of Volchansk in the Kharkov region. Here are links to videos recorded by residents of Belgorod the moment the missile arrived. Let me stress that this was not some shards. The footage clearly showed a missile approaching. Here you can see the effect of this attack.
One of the targets was the Dynamo sports complex in Belgorod, where youth gymnastics classes were held at that moment. Another was a skating rink in Belgorod city center, where parents were spending time with their children. Belgorod State Technological University also came under the attack of Ukrainian terrorists. In order to increase the number of victims of the terrorist attack, cluster munitions were used, two OLKHA missiles in a prohibited cluster configuration were used, as well as Czech-made VAMPIRE projectiles.
So this was a deliberate indiscriminate combined strike against a peaceful city. I would like to emphasize once again: what we saw was not a strike against military facilities with possible consequences for the civilian population, but a deliberate act of terrorism directed against civilians.
As of now, this premeditated and carefully prepared shelling of the central part of the city has killed 18 people, including three children. 108 people have been wounded, 5 children and 12 adults are in critical condition. We know that British and American advisers, who regularly incite the authorities of present-day Ukraine to commit bloody crimes, were directly involved in the organization of this terrorist attack. Countries of the European Union, which stubbornly and irresponsibly continue to pump arms into the Ukrainian ruling clique, also bear the responsibility.
Mr.President,
We are very familiar with the narrative that we are going to hear today: “none of this would have happened if you hadn't started the special military operation in February 2022”. That's a lie, ladies and gentlemen. We launched a special military operation to stop what the Kiev regime was doing in Donbas –bombarding its cities and towns with impunity for eight years, which went completely unnoticed on your part. We can only achieve this by defeating this terrorist regime, which openly brags about using terrorist methods against both its own and Russian citizens.
The shelling of populated areas in Donbas, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the Crimea, and other Russian regions; ruthless and blind killings of civilians testify to the agony of Zelensky's neo-Nazi regime mired in terrorism, lawlessness, corruption and cynicism, which in its impotent anger seeks to kill as many Russian people as possible to please its Western masters.
All organizers and perpetrators of this and other crimes of the Kiev junta will be inevitably punished. We call on all responsible governments and relevant international mechanisms to condemn in strongest possible terms this brutal terrorist attack, which used cluster munitions that are banned in most Western states, and to publicly distance themselves from the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors who commit such crimes. We are surprised by the Secretary-General's silence on this matter. On the UN part, we have heard only inarticulate comments from the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General that just dropped an impersonal remark that such attacks should be condemned. Silence in response to the unbridled barbarism of Ukrainian Nazis and their puppeteer accomplices from "civilized democracies" will be akin to complicity in their bloody acts.
It was not by chance that the Nazi Kiev regime chose Belgorod for a target of today's terrorist attack. As we all know, in recent weeks Ukrainian nationalists have lost many well-rooted positions in the suburbs of Donetsk, from where they have been shelling the peaceful neighborhoods of that city for nine years. The town of Marinka has been liberated, the Nazis are about to be driven out of Avdeevka, and the Russian troops are pushing the Ukrainian militants along the entire line of resistance. That’s why the nationalists are no longer up to their usual shelling. Now they need to save their lives by piling the corpses of untrained recruits on fighting positions. But in Kharkov region, in close proximity to the Russian border, the situation is different. So far. We will, of course, correct it. As we have already stated, one of the tasks of our special operation within the bigger goal of demilitarizing Ukraine is to eliminate threats coming from the territories bordering on Russian regions, including those that became part of Russia after the start of the military operation. The more such threats are created, the tougher we will retaliate. I think this must be clear to everyone.
To those of you who called for negotiations yesterday, adviser to the head of Ukrainian president's office, Mr. Podolyak, responded earlier today. Here is his quote: "There will be no negotiations. In the classical sense of the word. There will be ultimatums to the Russian Federation at the highest level, and Russia will accept." These are the associations that leaders of the Kiev regime have with the word "negotiations". Like Hitler in 1943-1944, they are sure of their invincibility and believe that the West will eventually save their skins.
Yesterday in this chamber, a representative of the Kiev clique, sitting behind the nameplate of former Ukrainian SSR, tried to lecture us on the issue conscience – its presence vs absence. The Kiev regime boasts of being an original member of the United Nations, shamefully omitting the fact that this was possible only thanks to Comrade Stalin, who insisted on it in view of the enormous contribution to the Victory made by Belarus and Ukraine and the sacrifices they made during the Second World War. The same Comrade Stalin, whom Ukrainian nationalists and Nazis hate fiercely, acquired for the Ukrainian SSR the western Ukrainian lands, which by that time had not been part of the Ukrainian SSR for centuries.
All of this, of course, has been forgotten and trampled on by the current Kiev authorities. They have a different history and different heroes now – those whom the Nuremberg Tribunal (which the representative of the Kiev gang refers to so abundantly) condemned as war criminals, collaborators and admirers of Adolf Hitler. The latter, as we know, said that conscience was a chimera. And the methods used by the current Kiev strategists are no different from those used by Bandera and other OUN folks, who used to massacre "Moskals", Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians themselves. They only difference is that now they are equipped with Western-made long-range weapon systems that allow them to reach city centers; and aim at peaceful people rather than military targets.
Mr.President,
In conclusion, let me recall a very accurate metaphor that Polish President A. Duda made during the High-Level Week. He compared Ukraine to a drowning man who could pull down to the bottom whoever he had a grip on. Today we see zelenskys, podolyaks, yermaks and other neo-Nazi rabble trying to drag down not only the people of Ukraine, but also those who supply them with military equipment and ammunition, ostensibly for defense against Russia. It is clear that little hope can be pinned on the United States and Great Britain. For them supporting the Kiev regime is a profitable enterprise, not only geopolitical but also commercial one. But I very much want to believe that today's cynical use of Czech shells against civilians may yet sober up all the rest.
Thank you.
Right of reply:
Mr.President,
I took the floor again to make several comments.
Whenever the topic under discussion is inconvenient for you, many of you like saying that Russia should not be allowed to mislead or distract attention. We are familiar with this point of yours. We also keep hearing that it was not Ukraine to start a war. Well, if there had been no coup d'état in Ukraine in 2013, (the coup that was supported and blessed by Western states), if those who seized power had not waged a war on their own people in Donbas in 2014, if the UNSC-endorsed Minsk Agreements had been implemented, then none of what happened in 2022 would ever have happened.
The representative of Malta spoke today about Ukraine's right to protect its citizens. Let me ask this: does Ukraine also have the right to deliberately and selectively kill civilians? The Permanent Representative of France says that Ukraine defends itself in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. But what about bombing civilian – not military – infrastructure. Is Ukraine doing this on the basis of Article 51 of the UN Charter too?
Russia does not target Ukrainian civilians, no matter how much you talk the opposite. Of course not all of you, but some. Everyone knows who exactly. We only aim at Ukraine's military infrastructure. And we do not purposefully and deliberately point weapons against civilians.
Look at social media publications by Ukronazi propagandists. What malice and gloating they spew when commenting on the deaths of civilians in Belgorod! You won't find anything like this on Russian social networks with regard to Ukrainian citizens. You have no idea how disgusting it is for people in Russia and those people in Ukraine who do not support the Kiev regime to listen to your cynical and deceitful speeches. Shame on you.
