Russia intends to remove Ukraine from the world map – NBC10 Philadelphia

The US ambassador to the UN said on Friday that there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine “and completely remove it from the world map”.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council that the United States sees increasing signs that Russia is laying the groundwork for an attempted annexation of all of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and southern Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, including by installing “illegitimate proxies in the districts , which are under the control of Russia, for the purpose of holding fictitious referendums or decrees on joining Russia.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “even stated that this is Russia’s military goal,” she said.

Lavrov told the Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscow’s main goal in Ukraine is to liberate its people from an “unacceptable regime.”

Apparently suggesting that Moscow’s military goals extend beyond the industrial Donbass in eastern Ukraine, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk, Lavrov said: “We will certainly help the Ukrainian people get rid of a regime that is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.”

Deputy Ambassador of Russia to the UN Dmytro Polyansky said on Friday in the Security Council that “denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be carried out in full.”

“From this stage, there should no longer be a threat to Donbass, to Russia, or to the liberated Ukrainian territories, where for the first time in several years people finally felt that they could live the way they wanted,” he said. .

Polanski also warned Western countries that supply long-range artillery and surface-to-surface missiles that they are moving the “temporary security line” further to the west, “thus further clarifying the goals and objectives of our special military operation. .”

Thomas-Greenfield went after countries that argue that “one country’s security should not come at the expense of another’s,” questioning what they call Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She didn’t name any countries, but it’s a sentiment China has repeated often, including on Friday by its deputy ambassador to the UN, Geng Shuang.

He told the council: “Putting one’s own security above the security of others, trying to strengthen military blocs, establishing absolute supremacy … will only lead to conflict and confrontation, divide the international community and make ourselves less secure.”

Countries that relied on Ukraine for crops such as wheat and beets are experiencing shortages after months of war. As a result, in Egypt and other countries of the African continent, food prices will “soar sharply”. Donor countries need to step up to help, says Lester Munson, principal international and trade consultant at BGR Group.

The U.S. ambassador also hit out at nations urging all countries to engage in diplomacy without naming Russia, saying: “Let’s be clear: Russia’s continued actions are an obstacle to resolving this crisis.” Again, she did not name any countries, but a significant number of countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East follow this approach.

Thomas-Greenfield cited evidence of mounting atrocities, including reports of bombings of schools and hospitals, “killings of aid workers and journalists, attacks on civilians trying to flee, brutal execution-style killings of those going about their daily business in Buchi,” a suburb the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, where, according to local authorities, hundreds of people were killed during the occupation by Russian forces.

She said there was evidence that Russian forces “interrogated, forcibly detained, deported an estimated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children, ripping them from their homes and sending them to remote regions in the east.”

Nearly 2 million Ukrainian refugees have been sent to Russia, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials. Ukraine describes these trips as forced transfers to enemy territory, which is considered a war crime. Russia calls them a humanitarian evacuation 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 Ukrainians believe, many refugees are indeed forced to make the surreal journey to Russia, suffering human rights abuses along the way, undocumented. and were left confused and lost as to where they were. Those who leave are passed through a series of so-called screening points, where treatment ranges from interrogation and stripping to being pulled aside and never seen again.

“The United Nations has information that officials from the Russian presidential administration are monitoring and coordinating filtering operations,” Thomas-Greenfield told the council.

Polyansky protested that, despite Ukraine’s attempts to intimidate its citizens, “people choose the country they believe in” — Russia.

He warned that the heavy weaponry the West is dumping into Ukraine will “spill over to Europe” because of, he said, “flourishing corruption among Ukraine’s political and military leadership.”

Polyansky said that Western weapons only “prolong the agony and increase the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”

Addressing the ambassadors of Western countries, he said: “the goals of our special military operation will be achieved in any case, no matter how much fuel you add to the fire in the form of weapons.”