LONDON, August 10, 9:29 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s embassy to the UK does not accept biased accusations of the UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond which he expressed in a comment on the crisis in Ukraine.
The embassy published a statement on its website on Saturday.
“This statement is unjust, misleading and unacceptable. Russia did not supply and is not supplying weapons to Ukraine.
“We are disappointed with constant threats of “increased costs” for Russia. This is not the language to use in talking to Russia,” the Russian embassy said.
“We are surprised that the Government of the United Kingdom denies humanitarian disaster in the Donbas region. Even if the media in UK by some unknown reason choose not to inform public on it does not mean the appalling humanitarian disaster does not exist. Deliberate silence on that is nothing more than bias and distortion of facts.
“Despite previous international agreements, including provisions of the Geneva Statement of 17 April and the Berlin Declaration of 2 July, Kiev continues a large-scale military operation in this region using heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, Grad multi-launch missile systems, causing deaths of Ukrainian civilians and mass destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
“According to the data of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 1367 people have been killed and 4087 people have been injured (of which 2589 were civilians, including 29 children) since the beginning of this operation. In total, there are about 3.9 million civilians in the area of military action. Vital infrastructure, including power supply and water supply, residential buildings are being destroyed. In some populated areas up to 80% of houses are destroyed. About 200,000 Ukrainians have no access to drinking water. In the last week, numbers of internally displaced people (112,000 people according to Ukrainian data) and refugees (163,000 according to Russian Federal Migration Service data) have drastically increased.
“The most dramatic situation is in healthcare. About 70% of medical personnel were forced to evacuate to safer regions, but those who stayed are in mortal danger, because there is high risk for ambulances to be attacked,” the embassy said in the statement.
“British Foreign Office statement does not represent the facts. It is aimed at misleading the international community and general public by pointing in the wrong direction. Instead, the UK should do something to make Kiev regime stop killing innocent civilians, prevent appalling humanitarian catastrophe and start inclusive real political dialogue with all Ukrainian parties.”
In a statement published on the UK government’s official website on August 8 the UK’s Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said there were no conditions for a humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“I strongly urge Russia to avoid any provocative actions, which will only serve to increase instability in the region and lead to further damaging consequences for Russia’s relationship with Europe,” Hammond said.