“Just hours ago, Russia again terrorized Kharkiv with S-300 missiles, hitting a residential building and a hotel,” he said. “Since this morning a number of cities and villages in Ukraine have come under Russian fire.”Schools should be safe havens for children, said UAE Deputy Ambassador Mohamed Issa Abushahab.“As long as Russia persists, the US will support Ukraine in its right to defend itself,” he said, calling on Moscow to immediately end the war and for the protection of all civilians on all sides in every conflict.
‘We unequivocally condemn attacks’
Watch the meeting here, and visit UN Meetings Coverage for full summaries of this and other UN meetings, in English and French.Russia had called for the emergency meeting following reported attacks on Belogorod. Located about 40 km north of the Ukrainian border, Belgorod is home to more than 300,000 residents.“The strikes were reported as among the deadliest cross-border attacks on the Russian Federation since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, launched in violation of the UN Charter and international law,” he said.
Civilian deaths in Belgorod
The emergency session was being held less than 24 hours after the Council convened a meeting on Ukraine, during which the UN chief condemned Russian attacks against multiple Ukrainian cities and towns.Ukraine’s representative Serhii Dvornyk said his country is “still recovering from Friday’s horrendous strikes”.“There are no winners in conflict,” he said, reiterating China’s willingness to work towards a peaceful solution.Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported new overnight Russian drone attacks targeting the Kherson region, he said.Many speakers agreed, calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukrainian territory and end hostilities.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the city centre of Belgorod were struck with missiles and attacks using prohibited cluster munitions as well as Czech-produced Vampir missiles. Targets included a sports centre, ice skating rink and a university.
United Nations
Ukraine: Still recovering from Russia’s ‘horrendous’ strikes
At the same time, he said, the Russian military authorities reported separate overnight Ukrainian drone attacks in the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions of Russia.“There’s no use pretending,” he said. “The European Union countries are complicit in the crimes committed by the gang in Kyiv.”French Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière echoed a point raised by several Council members, emphasizing that if Russian troops were not on Ukrainian soil, “we wouldn’t be here this afternoon”.Indeed, just a few hours ago, the city of Kharkiv was reportedly attacked, resulting in civilians injured and civilian infrastructure damaged, he said.The United Kingdom’s representative Thomas Patrick Phipps said that Russia is trying to draw equivalence to Friday’s Council meeting on Russian strikes against Ukrainian cities and towns.The United States’ representative John Kelly said Russia alone is responsible for starting this war, in violation of the UN Charter.
