MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday categorically dismissed unfounded Ukrainian claims that Russia has been striking civilian targets.
"The Russian Army never attacks or hits civilian facilities and civilians," Lavrov said at a roundtable meeting with foreign ambassadors on the Ukrainian conflict settlement.
The minister referred to the position of the United Nations' leadership.
"Most recently, in late August, Mr. [UN Secretary General Antonio] Guterres condemned the so-called ‘Russian attack’ on Ukrainian cities," Lavrov continued. "And every time Ukraine and its European backers start protesting, accusing Russia of destroying civilian targets and civilians, we see how the [UN] Secretariat supports such statements and demands, together with the West and Ukraine, that Russia be somehow punished."
"For each accusation, we requested the evidence, the facts, we asked them to provide the facts. As for the fakes that accuse the Russian Army of crimes that then turned out to be committed by the Ukrainian regime, there are numerous facts," Lavrov stressed and promised the ambassadors to show them a video clip about these facts.
"Violations of international humanitarian law by the Kiev regime are so obvious that it is simply impossible to deny them, and there are ample facts," he stated.
"However, in this case the [UN] secretariat adopts the opposite line and tries to justify the actions of the Kiev regime, although they violate such key requirements of international humanitarian law as the prohibition to deploy military equipment and firing positions in residential areas, torture and abuse of prisoners of war and civilians," the foreign minister said.
According to him, "when it is impossible to deny individual gross violations of international humanitarian law, then the UN Secretariat cautiously comes up with impersonal calls for restraint, addressing these calls to both sides."
As an example, the minister cited the reaction to the actions of the Ukrainian military in the Kursk Region.
"We observed a similar reaction when it was obvious to everyone how inhumanly the Nazi formations of the Kiev regime were acting, invading the Kursk region, where there are no military facilities at all. They deliberately struck shops, schools, and other civilian facilities and captured civilians as hostages," Lavrov added.