Ukraine’s envoy tells UNSC of new Russian war crimes, execution of POWs
This was stated by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, who spoke before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
According to the diplomat, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 114,000 cases of violations of the laws and customs of war have been documented on Ukrainian territory.
He told the meeting that on December 2, a video appeared on social media showing Russian troops executing two Ukrainian servicemen after they surrendered as POWs.
"This is not the first execution of Ukrainian POWs and we already drew attention of the Security Council to other heinous crimes, including the killing of captured Ukrainian soldiers after cruel and inhumane torture," Kyslytsya emphasized.
In this connection, he recalled the terrorist attack in Olenivka, which killed more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war in July 2022.
“Fewer doubts remain that their ultimate goal is elimination of the Ukrainian statehood and the Ukrainian nation. Daily missile and drone terror affecting the entire country serves as an important element of this deliberate policy of genocide,” Ukraine’s permanent representative emphasized.
According to him, since November 25, Russia launched 262 drones and 21 Kh-59 and S-300 missiles over Ukraine.
"Our air defense forces did incredible job, intercepting 81% of these airborne targets, notably 225 UAVs and 5 missiles, being shot down. However, the remaining 20% brought death and destruction to Ukrainians, their homes, and civilian infrastructure," Kyslytsya said.
Over the 11 months of 2023, he said, 59,000 strikes targeting residential areas in 24 regions of Ukraine were registered. Most of the attacks were reported in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions, as a result of which 2,000 people were killed and 11,000 were injured.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Wednesday the UN Security Council considered the humanitarian situation in Ukraine related to Russian strikes targeting civilian infrastructure.
