MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The shelling of civilian targets by the Ukrainian armed forces, like the one in Belgorod last weekend, was supposed to cause panic and discord in Russia, but it is having the opposite effect, bringing the people together, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large for Kiev regime crimes Rodion Miroshnik said on Radio Sputnik.
This week, the shelling on Belgorod intensified again. On May 12, a residential building collapsed as a result of a shelling attack. According to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, 19 people were killed that day, another 27 were injured, six of whom were sent to federal hospitals. Downtown Donetsk and the town of Rovenky in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) also came under heavy shelling in the past week.
"They want to sow unrest in Russia, to break Russia’s spirit. [They think] it is necessary to hit the people so that they feel danger, start blaming not Ukraine, not Westerners, not those who supply, not those who kill, but those who did not provide protection. According to Westerners, they should turn around and start tearing down [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. That story doesn't fly with Russians. When this kind of pressure is applied, people get angry, they start to rally, they start to create a united front and establish a general mindset of hatred against an enemy that is trying to hit children, trying to destroy houses, trying to smash medical facilities, trying to hit kindergartens. This works exactly the opposite for a Russian person. It seems to me that what is happening now will produce the opposite effect," Miroshnik said.
He cited as an example this March, when during the presidential election in Russia's regions bordering Ukraine the number of shellings increased significantly, especially in the Kursk Region. However, a record 87% of voters in the region voted for Putin - people supported the incumbent government.
Miroshnik added that the Ukrainian armed forces are acting like terrorists, trying to influence Russians with fear and terror because of the defeats on the front. He stressed that the shelling is coming exactly from those parts of the front where fierce fighting is taking place.