A Russian flagship, Moskva, today sunk in the Black Sea, which Ukraine claimed it had hit with indigenously made Neptune missiles – so far not used during the present war. Russia though claimed the warship was damaged by fire in the ship and it sunk while it was being towed down during a storm.
Today, April 15, 2022, marks 50 days since the war started between Russia and Ukraine. In that time, 4.6 million refugees have left the country. As of April 14, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 1,964 deaths and 2,613 injuries among Ukrainian civilians including children. The World Health Organization says there have been 119 verified attacks on health care and health services continue to be severely disrupted, particularly in the east of the country. Huge resources will be required to cover longer-term needs. War, the climate crisis and COVID-19 are driving up food and fuel prices across the globe.
Below, we reproduce excerpts from the Russian version of the war in Ukraine as narrated by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova during her press briefing last night in Moscow.
Kyiv is resorting to fakes to distract attention from its own crimes
By Maria Zakharova
For eight years we have been witnessing Kiev’s war crimes and the West’s indifference to the tragedy in Donbass. Having exhausted diplomatic means of protecting Donbass and ensuring its own security, Russia was forced to launch a special military operation. The Russian armed forces use high-precision weapons to strike military targets and are doing all they can to avoid civilian casualties.
This does not apply to the Ukrainian armed formations whose barbaric conduct horrifies those who are aware of them. However, it is impossible to know it since the world media do not give an accurate picture and instead shape public opinion exclusively through propaganda instructions handed down from Washington and NATO structures. The Ukrainian side places tanks and artillery in schools, kindergartens and hospitals. Firing points are set up in residences so as use the people as a human shield.
On April 8 of this year, the Ukrainian army launched a Tochka-U tactical missile at the railway station in Kramatorsk. Dozens of civilians were killed and over a hundred wounded. On March 14, they used the same missile to strike at Donetsk. This is remembered by those who saw it, who were informed by the media about the warhead type, whose territory it was launched from and how many people died as a result. The Western community saw a different picture. The April 14 tragedy in Donetsk was blamed on Russian forces. It was completely at odds with reality. On that day, 17 people were killed and 36 peopled were wounded. Where was the world community? They did not speak about either civilian casualties, or children and old people. Just like they had never spoken about them for the entire eight years. On April 5 and 9 of this year, Ukrainian forces blew up tanks with chemicals which resulted in the release of toxic substances.
The West keeps flooding the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons including obsolete Soviet-made items which are much cheaper to give to Ukraine than to decommission. What frightening, cynical and criminal logic. Why should the Western countries waste their money if they can “package” it and send it to Ukraine so that the conflict never ends and the casualties keep growing? That’s a smart idea. But someone will have to bear responsibility for it afterwards.
The US, the main “donor of death”, has supplied $1.7 billion worth of weapons since the start of the special military operation. That’s just in the past month and a half. The European Union is right behind it with 1.5 billion euros. Among other suppliers of Ukrainian Nazis are the UK, Germany, Canada, Baltic states, France and Czechia. This shows once again that the EU has ceased to be a purely economic association and is rapidly evolving into a military-political entity. I should say “devolving”, not because military-political entities are bad but because what NATO and the EU are doing now is a crime ̵ supplying a regime that had been shelling unarmed civilians for eight years, despite the fact the conflict had outgrown the limits and formats it had earlier. Fuelling, fuelling and fuelling.
Kyiv is resorting to fakes that purport to show the cruel treatment of civilians by the Russian military so as to distract attention from Kyiv’s own crimes. Last week we made a detailed analysis of the staged show in Bucha. A party of journalists and European politicians was dispatched there instead of forensic experts. They did not question the appropriateness of what they were doing and could not think of anything better to do than pose for pictures and give interviews in the centre of the town where a criminal provocation was staged by the Kyiv regime which they themselves raised and armed. This begs the question: are there limits to cynicism or is the “collective West” capable of more “achievements” in this area? Indeed, the “collective West”, primarily the US, and the NATO retinue can fall even further below.
It is remarkable that the bodies which had been cynically used in the staged show in Bucha were not buried so that five days later the EU leaders ̵ Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell ̵ could pose for photos with that in the background. Or at least black bags. This goes even beyond a stunt. There must be some morals. We are human beings. We live on the same planet. The Western politicians must still have beating hearts. It’s just not possible to cynically betray everything. Kyiv is currently preparing new staged shows in Seredina-Buda and Nizhnyaya Syrovatka in the Sumy region where Russian troops were positioned earlier. Do not fall for these and other provocations.
New glaring facts of unlawful violence and humiliation of Russian POWs by Ukrainian militants are being revealed. Western officials pretend not to notice the numerous videos on the internet. We expect the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other organisations to insist on Kyiv’s observance of the norms of international humanitarian law. To my knowledge, the Kyiv regime is doing all it can to oppose the ICRC humanitarian mission.
Photo caption: President of Poland Andrzej Duda, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, President of Latvia Egils Levits, and President of Estonia Alar Karis attended destroyed by Russian troops Borodyanka in Kyiv region on April 13. Photo by Jakub Szymczuk (war.ukraine.ua)
