Implementing its annihilation strategy, Russia has fired nearly 1,000 missiles, about 2,800 "Shahed" drones and almost 7,000 guided aerial bombs on Ukrainian cities and villages since the beginning of the year, according to Serhiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN.
Kyslytsya stated this during a UN Security Council meeting. He highlighted that the combined explosive power of aviation strikes on Ukraine during this period exceeds 9 kilotons. Only 3% of Russian missiles, drones and guided bombs hit military targets, while 97% hit civilian infrastructure.
He emphasized that Russia deliberately targeted critical energy infrastructure, including power generation facilities. Following attacks in March, 80% of thermal energy production was destroyed, and hydroelectric power stations also suffered significant damage.
Kyslytsya reminded the UN of ongoing shelling in Kharkiv.
"Kharkiv – the second largest city in Ukraine before the war – has become a particular target for the Russian forces. Russian state-affiliated expert Aleksandr Sytin, who is the Head of the so-called “Center for Political Studies of Northern and Eastern European Countries” openly admitted on a Russian federal TV channel that “the capture or destruction of Kharkiv will have a painful, demoralizing effect on Ukrainian society. But I believe that the will of this people needs to be broken over the knee. That’s why Russia shells Kharkiv’s civilian infrastructure on an almost daily basis with rockets, drones and aerial guided bombs. Almost all critical energy infrastructure in the region, including the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, was destroyed," he said.
Kyslytsya noted that even though the regimes of dictators Putin and Hitler "are not identical twins, they have the same toxic DNA."
"Eighty years ago, almost a decade spent on appeasement resulted in a world war. The attempts to appease the new aggressor that we observed from 2014 to 2022 resulted in a full-scale war on the European continent. The lessons of history must be learned. If the Security Council had existed during WWII, would its members have sat at the same table with the Ribbentrops while the Nazis were destroying European cities and sending thousands of people to gas chambers? And yet we now sit with modern reincarnations of the Ribbentrops," he said.
