Ukrainian strikes in the center of the Russian provincial capital of Belgorod have reportedly killed twenty-one civilians.
“The UN has condemned Ukraine’s deadly shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod. The statement came after Moscow accused Kiev of deliberately killing civilians.
‘The attacks against civilian population and civilian infrastructure are a violation of international humanitarian law and must stop immediately’, the office of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, as quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
At least 21 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in Ukrainian missile strikes on Belgorod on Saturday, according to local officials. The Russian Defense Ministry said that cluster munitions were used in the attack.
Russia requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday. In his speech at the UN headquarters in New York, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia claimed that U.S. and UK ‘consultants’ helped to plan the strikes on Belgorod. He warned that ‘organizers and perpetrators’ of the attack ‘will be punished’.
On Friday, Gueterres condemned ‘in the strongest terms’ Russia’s large-scale strikes on targets in Kiev and several other Ukrainian regions. According to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, 39 people were killed and nearly 160 were injured.
The Russian Defense Ministry, however, issued a statement on Saturday saying that only ‘military facilities and infrastructure’ were targeted in recent air raids. Russian officials also claimed that civilian death in Ukraine occurred due to the faulty work of Ukrainian air defense systems”. -RT
In response to Ukraine's attack, Russia launched a fresh bombardment on the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and residential areas of the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
And while the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada have reportedly put forward a plan for the Group of Seven's February 24th summit for the bloc of countries to confiscate hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen Russian foreign exchange reserves that were immobilized by Western nations after the onset of the Ukrainian conflict, it seems that, without an end to the Western sanctions, Russia has no choice but to continue to push toward a Ukrainian surrender.