November 9, 2023
Russia requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council for November 8, 2023 because of the strikes on Donetsk. Earlier on November 7, the shelling of the city by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) resulted in 20 casualties. The author of Ukraina.ru web site Anna Cherkasova interviewed Vladimir Kozin, Corresponding Member, Russian Academy of Military Science, Moscow. This is what he said.
Q: Vladimir Petrovych, why is there a Special Operation going on for almost a year, and we cannot protect Donbass from shelling?
A: From the first days of the Ukrainian-NATO aggression directed against the peaceful population of the five historical territories that became part of the Russian Federation by the will of their population, Moscow has been providing extensive armed counteraction to the barbaric shelling of homes and social and energy infrastructure facilities by the AFU with heavy and other types of weapons.
The shelling takes place practically every day and night. Several populated areas and certain districts of Donetsk and other cities are being shelled. On average, the Ukrainian armed forces use from 100 to 300 shells of various artillery systems and MLRS rockets. And the number of shelling itself reaches several times a day. The AFU widely uses anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions against civilians. Russian nuclear power plants have repeatedly been shelled.
As a result of such shelling, many civilians, including the elderly and children, have been killed.
The Russian Armed Forces cannot fully prevent all such actions due to the long length of the front line and the significant number of shells and missiles used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the range of which is constantly increasing.
Q: What is so special about the latest shelling that Russia is calling an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council?
The Russian side is constantly informing the international community about such criminal actions by the Ukrainian side. It indicates the exact locations of such shelling, the types of weapons used and, unfortunately, the casualties among civilians and the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and energy facilities.
In the latest shelling, attention is drawn to the high number of civilian casualties and the targeted destruction of housing and social and energy infrastructure.
Russia's patience has come to an end.
All the more so because the Russian Armed Forces are not waging war on Ukrainian civilians, nor are they destroying their homes and similar life-support facilities, as discussed above.
Q: What is the point of appealing to the United Nations if we are not heard anyway and there is a real war of the West against Russia in Ukraine?
A: Russia has once again raised this issue with the UN. Such barbaric methods of Ukrainian-NATO aggression against the peaceful population of the designated five historical territories, which have become full-fledged subjects of the Russian Federation, must end. All the more so with the direct assistance of NATO countries and a number of non-aligned states.
Q: Which countries in the UNO can support Russia on the Donbass issue? What could this look like?
A: Moscow expresses its deep regret that some Member States of the United Nations are not paying attention to the war crimes of the Kyiv regime and its Western curators against the civilian population of Russia.
There is no doubt that the Russian side will once again express its condemnation of such inhuman and barbaric practices by Ukraine.
In addition, it will make a statement to the NATO countries that are in favor of continuing to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine. That will only make matters worse: the war crimes of the Kyiv leadership against Russian civilians will continue.
Russian citizens are increasingly demanding that the Russian military and political leadership severely punish these two sources of numerous and widespread misery and suffering among Russian civilians.
Some facts articulated by Russia at the UN Security Council meeting held on November 8, 2023:
Armed Forces of Ukraine made several attacks on November 7, 2023 in Donbass where six civilians have been killed and 55 people injured, including three children.
These attacks have been made by stages in order to kill more civilians. Th first attack took place at 4:25 pm – in the middle of the workday, when the Department of Labor and Social Protection traditionally has many visitors; at 4:40 pm – 15 minutes after the first strike, and still less than two hours later – at 6:27 pm.
Unfortunately, a doctor and an ambulance paramedic who had come to the rescue, as well as a traffic police officer, were killed, and 23 EMERCOM staff were wounded.
The terrorist practice of launching repeated strikes against the same location is part of the AFU playbook.
In addition to this, during the time of active combat action more than 20 cases of repeated shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces against emergency services rescuers and medics have been documented. More than 50 employees of the operational services fell victim to Ukrainian terror, and more than 200 were wounded.
Since February 2022, the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic alone has been subjected to more than 25,000 artillery and missile strikes by Ukrainian armed forces. A total of 145,000 shells fell in Donetsk area. More than 16,000 residential buildings and almost 3,500 civilian infrastructure facilities were destroyed and damaged, including about 700 educational and more than 200 medical institutions and more than 1,100 electricity, water, heat and gas supply facilities.
During that time, 4,755 civilians, including 140 children, were killed in the DPR. 5,360 persons, including 357 children, sustained injuries of varying severity.
Moreover, the terror against the population of Donbas did not begin in February 2022. Over the previous eight years, since May 2014, the Ukrainian authorities had carried out aggression against their own people, who did not accept the unconstitutional Maidan coup d'état in Kiev and stood up to defend their rights and freedoms. Troops were deployed against the civilian population. Aviation, heavy artillery and armored vehicles were used.
The total number of people killed and wounded in Donbass since 2014 exceeds 20,000 civilians.
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
