Remarks to the press by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia with regard to the attack by Ukrainian forces against Belgorod, Russia
Vassily Nebenzia: Facing massive failures in the battlefield (namely the recent loss of a strategic town of Avdeevka), the Kiev regime is trying to make up by intensifying its terrorist attacks against civilians.
Less than two weeks ago, we convened a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss an attack on a bakery in the city of Lisichansk (and before that Belgorod, and before that Donetsk). In Lisichansk, 28 innocent people, including a child, were killed during the shelling, several dozens injured. One more person died in a hospital last week from the injuries sustained in the attack. This was an act of terrorism committed by the Ukrainian armed forces as they deliberately attacked civilian infrastructure, one of many in the last couple of months.
Since then, the Ukrainian forces have demonstrated their heinous neo-Nazi nature yet again. During the day on February 15, they launched another massive attack on peaceful areas of Belgorod. Seven people died, including a newborn. 19 local residents, four of whom were children, were injured. Apartment buildings, industrial enterprises, cars, and a store were damaged.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, on the same day, air defense systems destroyed 14 Ukrainian Vampire Missile System shells over the territory of the Belgorod region.
This strike makes no sense from the military point of view. The military infrastructure was not located in the immediate vicinity of the shelling. Instead, rockets were launched on innocent people in a premeditated act of terror.
We call on the UN Secretariat and the agencies to condemn these heinous crimes against civilians and civilian infrastructure carried out by the Kiev regime in violation of the international humanitarian law. Our national investigation is underway, the perpetrators of these crimes will be identified and prosecuted.
Yet another terrorist attack by the Ukrainian armed forces against the city of Belgorod has once again highlighted the criminal role of the West led by the United States, which continues to send the deadly weapons to the Kiev regime and thus is an accomplice in all its crimes. These weapons are used in a mass and indiscriminate killing of civilians. Western states are perfectly aware of that, but when it comes to Russian cities, be it Belgorod or Donetsk or Lugansk, they never recall such things as protection of civilians or norms of international humanitarian law. In a bid to profit as much as possible of the conflict they are completely unbothered by the fact that their weapons, mercilessly and deliberately, hit civilian targets.
The proxy war till the least Ukrainian is a lucrative business project for them. Tremendous money is spent on weapons for Ukraine. Billions of US dollars are migrating from the pockets of taxpayers to the accounts of Western military industries. The majority of EU members obediently follow Washington’s orders to supply more and more arms to Kiev, depleting their arsenals and replenishing them with products purchased from the US defense industry.
I can offer to you a very ample example of such neocolonial mentality of the Western establishment. Your colleague from the UK, Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of the Economist has been very open about how the West uses the people in Ukraine in her TV interview recently (for the Daily Show). She said – and I quote – “Giving money to Ukraine is the cheapest way for the US to enhance its security. The fighting is being done by Ukrainians, their people are being killed. The US and Europe are supplying them weapons. And in doing that we are pushing back against Putin”.
Hypocrisy and cynicism of Western states become even more evident since they directly violate all the international agreements and commitments regarding the transfer of weapons and military equipment they are a party to.
The sole purpose of the collective West is to drag out this conflict, hoping to impose their will and their so-called rules-based international order and to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia.
It is precisely for this reason that the US, the UK and their accomplices made the criminal Kiev regime sabotage the implementation of the Minsk agreements and destroy the chance for peace in April 2022 by prohibiting Zelensky from signing a peace agreement [with Russia]. And in this vein they turn a blind eye to all the heinous crimes and terrorist acts of Zelensky and his clique.
Q: Ambassador, you raised civilian casualties that have been suffered by Russia. But Russia has caused civilian casualties in Ukraine and in less than a week’s time it will be an anniversary of start of the war and Russia started it.
A: First, we do not deliberately target any civilian objects in Ukraine, only military targets. That’s point one. Secondly. As has been said many times we did not start a war. The war was started in 2014 by the Kiev regime when they started their so-called anti-terrorist operation against their own citizens. We came to end it. We didn’t start it.
Q: Ambassador, may I ask you another question about Alexei Navalny. I know maybe it is not your direct responsibility but you are representative of the Russian Federation. Could you explain to the people around the world who are watching this why the Russian authorities are not handing over his body? Do you have something to hide?
A: Well, I think it’s very simple because the forensic medical investigation is not over yet. The exact cause of the death was not yet disclosed. While our Western colleagues, 15 min after the news were published, they rushed to claim that this was the responsibility of the "Putin regime", etc. I would like to appeal to these self-proclaimed fighters for freedom of speech. Where were you when the Kiev regime imprisoned your own citizen, I mean the US citizen, independent journalist Gonzalo Lira, on far-fetched charges, who then was tortured and did not receive proper medical care until his death in a Ukrainian prison? He had the courage to tell the truth about the real state of affairs in Ukraine and therefore became an inconvenient person for them that had to be "taken care of". We know the value of these empty slogans about protecting human rights. We would recommend focusing on protecting their own citizens, rather than making baseless accusations against Russia.
Also, while underscoring that every death is a tragedy I’d like to point out the following. As I said, Western political leaders lined up with accusations in as little as 15 minutes after the first reports of his passing away were published. All this in the absence of any detailed information, let alone a forensic medical examination. It is as if the statements were prepared in advance. And as you know his wife accidentally happened to be at the Munich Security Conference at the same time. But when it comes to investigations of such heinous crimes and sabotage like, for example, the Nord Stream, our Western colleagues are taking their time. The Swedish authorities already closed the investigation, and nobody else is hurrying with making the truth known. I think that they would better look for the themselves before making these accusations even before any evidence came to light.
Q: I have a question regarding the Doha meeting on Afghanistan. In a statement, the Russian Embassy in Afghanistan announced that Russian delegation will not meet with Afghan civil society members. The only delegation in Doha that is not meeting with the Afghan representatives. Why is that and don’t you think that in this way Russia is turning its back on women in Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan and siding with Taliban?
A: We are not turning our back on women and children of Afghanistan. We stress all the time that the issue of human rights for women and girls in Afghanistan is an important matter which we follow and which are on the same line with our colleagues in the Security Council and the international community. But there are other things for Afghanistan that should be dealt with and attended to. We have no choice but to engage pragmatically with the de-facto authorities of Afghanistan whom we didn’t recognize like nobody else. But the reality is there. We have to engage with those people who rule Afghanistan now.
Q: Could you comment on Gaza? There is a vote, we believe tomorrow morning. The US Ambassador already issued a statement that she is going to veto. What is your reaction?
A: That’s sad. Sad that we cannot come with the ceasefire for as long as nearly five months now and that only one delegation is preventing it. I think that if we had come with the ceasefire first time we proposed it (16 October 2023), so many lives could have been spared.
Q: Russia called foreign partners and foreign organizations to take part in the investigation of IL-76 downing. Were there any response from any party?
A: No. We are conducting our own investigation. Nobody approached us on that.
Q: Do you plan to request UN Security Council meeting on Western weapon deliveries to Ukraine in the near future?
A: Perhaps. We’ll have two meetings on Ukraine this week, one in the General Assembly, the second called by our former Western partners in the Security Council on 23 February. Some time into February-March we will of course call something in that vein.
