Russia Rejects UK Hammond’s Biased Accusations on Ukraine Crisis
“This statement (the Hammond’s comments) is unjust, misleading and unacceptable. Russia did not supply and is not supplying weapons to Ukraine,” the Russian embassy said in a statement on Saturday, Itar-Tass reported.
“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,” it added.
“Despite previous international agreements, including provisions of the Geneva Statement of April 17 and the Berlin Declaration of July 2, Kyiv continues a large-scale military operation in this region using heavy artillery, armored vehicles, Grad multi-launch missile systems, causing deaths of Ukrainian civilians and mass destruction of civilian infrastructure,” the statement further said.
“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 percent 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,” it went on to say.
“The most dramatic situation is in healthcare. About 70 percent 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 Kyiv 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 secretary said there were no conditions for a humanitarian aid to Ukraine.