A senior UN official condemned Russia on Friday for its “appalling assaults” on Ukraine involving some 158 missiles and drones, and killing at least 30 people.
Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in the nationwide barrage that also wounded over 160 people, said Ukrainian officials.
“Regrettably, today’s appalling assaults were only the latest in a series of escalating attacks by the Russian Federation,” said UN assistant secretary-general Mohamed Khiari at a UN Security Council meeting.
“The (UN) Secretary-General unequivocally condemns, in the strongest possible terms, today’s appalling attacks on cities and towns across Ukraine.
“Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law, are unacceptable and must stop immediately.”
The attacks – which also saw a Russian missile passing through Polish airspace – triggered international condemnation and fresh promises of military support to Ukraine, which has been fighting off invading Russian troops since late February 2022.
“We have recorded a serious incident of violation of the Polish airspace by a Russian missile. The event is under investigation now by the Polish military and competent security services,” said Poland’s ambassador to the UN Krzysztof Szczerski.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya blamed the toll on the misuse of Ukraine’s air defense systems, “the use of which has led to the deaths of civilians,” he said.
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Nebenzya held up a QR code linking to a video he claimed showed that residential buildings were damaged by Ukrainian air defenses.
An American envoy to the Security Council said Friday’s attacks underscore Putin’s goal in the conflict: “He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “Ukraine, along with three dozen UN Member States, requested that the Ecuadorian Presidency convene” the meeting.
Kyiv’s envoy to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya said that the overnight attack “had increased the scale of pain among the people.”
He listed targets as “a maternity ward, educational facilities, a shopping mall, 45 multistory residential buildings, private houses, two churches... and a parking lot.”
“Russian air terror poses a threat not only to Ukraine but to neighboring countries as well,” he said referring to the claim that a missile entered Polish airspace.
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Comments (3)
The damage to Russia's reputation is permanent. They will never be trusted to supply gas to Europe ever again, the EU has adapted to cope without that supply.
The world thinks of Russia now in different terms, with every attack they move further from civilised society. When this is all over there is no going back to how things were before.
@Jack, This is something we can agree on.
Any decent Russian's acceptance back into international circles will somewhat depend on the thoroughness with which they now dispose of their tyrant and his thug regime. They need to take out their country's trash. No need to be delicate about it either, since we are only talking about the worst garbage of modern human existence.
The russian people will still need to crawl out of the hole he dug for them, repent for not acting sooner, and make restitution for what they allowed him to do to Ukraine (and the free world including via cybercrimes and instigating many refugee crisis's at our borders). I suspect many russian outer regions will choose to splinter off into independent nations so as to never be referred to as russian again.. But first things first....the worst of the current regimes trash must be taken out by Russians themselves.
In the meantime Ukraine should be enabled to give Russians a reasonable taste of what they are allowing putin to do to Ukraine. In the least, to commence taking out russia's national propaganda logistics and infrastructure putin now uses to support his illegal war. That is overdue to wake Russians out of their ignorantly indifferent slumber.
time to put a bit of heat up pooties bumhole
Ukraine has been too long on the recieving end. Time to hit russian citys and towns. UN is just pussyfooting around.
@Peterpan, Absolutely. Russia should never have been granted veto rights on the UN Security Council.......nor any other nation with a history of human rights abuse.