UN Security Council Debates Ukraine Crisis

Russia does not target civilians in Ukraine and did not strike the shopping center in Kremenchug, Moscow’s envoy to the UN told the Security Council on Tuesday. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said that the mall caught fire due to an explosion of Western-supplied weapons and ammunition, stored at the nearby factory and intended for the shelling of civilians in Donbass, making it a legitimate military target.

He also criticized the UNSC for breaching protocol and allowing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to address the council via video-link, after refusing such a request from the Central African Republic.

“In reality, there was no strike on the mall,” Polyanskiy told the council, as Russia targeted a storage facility at the Kredmash factory next door. The weapons and ammunition stored there were bound for the front, where Ukrainian artillery was bombarding the civilians of Donbass as it had for years, to no objection from the UN, he added. “The Russian strike stopped that.”

Polyanskiy pointed out that Ukrainian media clearly showed images of intact merchandise inside the ‘Amstor’ shopping center, and windows of nearby residential buildings that had not shattered. The fire was caused by explosions of the Western-supplied ammunition at Kredmash, he said.

Moscow’s envoy accused Ukraine of waging a propaganda war, using fakes and lies such as “Snake Island 13” or the “Ghost of Kiev” to campaign for more weapons and financial aid from the West. Actual testimonials of civilians from Donbass show they blame only the Ukrainian military, which deploys around residential homes and uses civilians as human shields, Polyanskiy argued.