UNITED NATIONS, June 23. /TASS/. The counteroffensive from Ukraine's armed forces is fully self-destructive, set in motion with complete disregard for the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday.

"Ukraine's armed forces have been conducting a suicidal counteroffensive against Russian positions for almost a month now; it has already cost them tens of thousands of mobilized men, several hundred pieces of armored hardware, and it is called in Ukrainian society none other than the Zaporozhye slaughter," Nebenzya said.

"As was the case with the Bakhmut slaughter, where the Kiev regime sent Ukrainian soldiers to their deaths for several months just to prove to Western arms suppliers that Ukraine could defeat Russia. Of course, they only succeeded in proving the opposite, which [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky and his clique are trying to forget today."

"Now they face a bigger task: how to make a victory out of a complete fiasco and defeat. Toiling on this task together with them are Washington, London and Brussels, who never think about Ukraine as such and its interests," the UN ambassador went on to say.

"Against the background of what is going on, it is even more evident today that they are interested in this country only as an instrument to weaken or at least restrain Russia. That is why they will not let the puppet regime in Kiev have any peace talks, at least as long as there are still some Ukrainians left. The same way they didn’t allow it to be done in March last year, as Russian President Vladimir Putin explained in detail at a meeting with African leaders," Nebenzya said.

"It is obvious that those in Kiev, who are behind this terrorist attack (Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant blast - TASS), obsessed with this notorious counterattack, set little store on the interests of their people and the future of their country," the diplomat stressed.