Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on Ukraine (November 23, 2022)
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Key points:
In the course of our special military operation, we have to oppose not only the formations of the Kiev regime, but also
countries of the North Atlantic Alliance that provide all sorts of military support to Kiev and thus
wage a proxy war on Russia. In order to weaken and destroy the military potential of our opponents, we launch
high-precision strikes against energy and other infrastructure that
is used to supply Ukrainian armed formations with weapons, first of all Western, facilitate their logistics and liaison.
We cannot remember anyone in the West express any concern back in 2015, when through the fault of Ukraine the people of Crimea were left without water and electricity. To say nothing of the people of Donbas, who
suffered from economic suffocation for eight years on end.
The residential buildings become damaged and civilians get killed
on account of Ukrainian air defense systems that are deployed in centers of Ukrainian cities rather than on the outskirts. As a result, wreckage of the missiles or stray Ukrainian missiles hit the facilities that we never targeted.
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We launch strikes against the Ukrainian infrastructure
in retaliation for the pumping-up of Ukraine with Western weapons and the reckless calls to Kiev to win a military victory over Russia. Undermining the combat capability of the Ukrainian army, which threatens the security and territorial integrity of Russia, is one of the goals of our special military operation. This task will be carried out by military means
until the Kiev regime adopts a realistic position that would allow to negotiate and try to resolve the issues that forced us to start the SMO.
Western states seek to establish their geopolitical hegemony by proxy at the expense of Ukrainian lives.
