New Delhi: At an informal “Arria formula” meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday Russian diplomats presented vast evidence of crimes committed by the Ukrainian military and nationalist groups, which in particular hampered the evacuation of the civilian population. Russia’s ambassador Vasily Nebenzya stressed that the Ukrainian authorities and their Western sponsors were doing their utmost to prevent this sad truth from coming under the spotlight.
Nebenzya asked his foreign counterparts to pay due attention to the fact that the Ukrainian army repeatedly deployed heavy weapons to residential areas and used civilians as human shields, which was a violation of international humanitarian law.
“We have enough reasons to believe that all these principles are systematically violated by the Ukrainian army and paramilitaries. There are many eye-witness accounts of how the Ukrainian army uses civilians as hostages and a human shield,” he said.
Those present at the meeting were briefed on the Ukrainian army’s tactic of creating fire emplacements inside apartment buildings and civilian infrastructures. Tanks and other armored vehicles are placed on the ground floors, and snipers, man-portable missiles, and heavy weapons are stationed on the roof, with peaceful civilians literally sandwiched between them.
Russian diplomats showed video interviews of Ukrainian civilians who had managed to escape from the zone of hostilities. Many testified the Ukrainian army had opened fire on the cars of those trying to use humanitarian corridors for evacuation. A woman resident of Mariupol emphatically dismissed the rumors the Russian army was responsible for the explosion inside Mariupol’s theater.
(Vinayak)