Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that the United States is seeing increasing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork to try to annex all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, including the establishment “illegal proxies in Russian-controlled areas with the aim of holding fake referendums or decrees to join Russia.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “has even stated that this is Russia’s war objective,” he said. Lavrov told an Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscow’s primary goal in Ukraine is to liberate its people from its “unacceptable regime.” Apparently implying that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people get rid of the regime, which it is absolutely unpopular and anti-historical”. Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, told the Security Council on Friday that “the de-Nazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be fully realized.” “There should be no more threat from this stage to Donbas, nor to Russia, nor to the liberated Ukrainian territories where for the first time in several years people can finally feel that they can live as they want,” he said. . Polyansky also warned Western nations supplying long-range artillery and MLRS surface-to-surface rockets that they were shifting “the temporary security line” westward, “and thereby further clarifying the goals and objectives of our special military operation . » Thomas-Greenfield went after countries that say “one country’s security should not be at the expense of another’s,” questioning what they call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He did not name any countries, but it is a view China has often repeated, including on Friday by its deputy UN ambassador Geng Shuang. He told the council: “Putting your own security above that of others, trying to strengthen military blocs, establishing absolute superiority… will only lead to conflict and confrontation, divide the international community and make it less secure ». The US ambassador also went after the nations calling on all countries to embrace diplomacy without naming Russia, saying: “Let’s be clear: Russia’s continued actions stand in the way of resolving this crisis.” Again he did not name any countries, but a significant number of nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East follow this approach. Thomas-Greenfield cited evidence of increasing atrocities, including reported bombings of schools and hospitals, “the killing of aid workers and journalists, the targeting of civilians trying to flee, the brutal execution-style killing of those going about their daily lives jobs in Bucha. The suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, where local authorities said hundreds of people were killed during its occupation by Russian forces. He said there were indications that Russian forces “have interrogated, forcibly arrested, deported approximately hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children — tearing them from their homes and sending them to remote areas in the east.” Nearly 2 million Ukrainian refugees have been sent to Russia, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine portrays these trips as forced transports into enemy territory, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them humanitarian evacuations of war victims who already speak Russian and are grateful for a new home. A recent Associated Press investigation, based on dozens of interviews, found that while the situation is more nuanced than the Ukrainians suggest, many refugees are indeed forced to embark on a surreal journey to Russia, subject to human rights abuses along the way. without documents. and they left confused and lost as to where they are. Those who leave go through a series of what are known as filtering points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and strip search to being cast aside and never seen again. “The United Nations has information that officials from the Russian presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating the filtering operations,” Thomas-Greenfield told the council. Polyansky responded that despite Ukraine’s efforts to intimidate its citizens “people choose the country they trust” — Russia. He warned that heavy weapons pouring into Ukraine from the West “will spill over into Europe” because of what he claimed was “the flourishing of corruption among Ukraine’s political and military leadership”. Polyansky said that Western weapons only “incite anxiety and increase the suffering of the Ukrainian people.” Addressing Western ambassadors, he said: “The objectives of our special military operation will be achieved by all means, no matter how much fuel you throw on the fire in the form of weapons.”
