The Russians are trying to provoke a humanitarian catastrophe throughout Ukraine.
The Russian occupiers failed in a blitzkrieg - to seize the territory of Ukraine in a flash and establish their power here. So now we are moving to Plan B - to create a humanitarian catastrophe throughout Ukraine.
This was stated by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya on March 29 at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
"After the failure of their initial blitzkrieg plan, Russian troops switched to Plan B. This plan is to provoke a humanitarian catastrophe throughout Ukraine and destroy my country's agricultural potential to intimidate the Ukrainian political leadership and people and persuade them to surrender," Kislytsia said.
He noted that "the toolkit is wide and extremely brutal. It includes the deliberate destruction of residential areas and critical infrastructure, rocket fire across the country, the siege of cities, violations of humanitarian corridor agreements, terror against civilians in occupied areas, including abductions and killings. The occupiers have abducted about 30 local leaders, activists, and journalists so far."
Russia has launched more than 1,200 ballistic, cruise and supersonic missiles in Ukraine, 467 of them in residential areas.
"Mariupol remains a bleeding wound in the heart of Europe. According to local authorities, at least 5,000 people have died. Almost 150,000 people remain under siege, deprived of any basic living conditions. They must be evacuated, but not to the aggressor's territory. Russia's attempts to do so are cynical hypocrisy and a gross violation of the laws and customs of war, international humanitarian law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. About 40,000 Ukrainians were forcibly deported to Russia and Belarus," Sergiy Kyslytsya said.
At the same time, the Russian occupiers are firing on evacuation columns, trying to leave Mariupol for the unoccupied territory of Ukraine.
According to UNICEF, during the month of the war in Ukraine had to move 4.3 million children (a total of 7.5 million children in the country), 1.8 million of them went abroad. The Russian occupiers killed at least 143 children and 216 were injured.
"Humanitarian action is urgently needed. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine is an element of Russia's military strategy. To be effective, any initiative should change Russia's general approach to Ukraine. A partner on the humanitarian path," Kislytsia said.
