Moscow attacks Kyiv at UN meeting, defends actions in eastern Ukraine

WASHINGTON

Russian representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, slammed Ukraine on Wednesday for its policies in the Donbas region and defended Moscow's political and military actions in eastern Ukraine.

Speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting, Nebenzia said Ukraine has become anti-Russia over the years and it does not need Donbas inhabitants, only needs their land.

"President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy said this clearly, telling them that they should get away and go to Russia," said Nebenzia. "The Kyiv authorities are dubbing these people, very disparagingly, terrorists."

"Having become convinced the situation was hopeless, we decided that the people of Donbas are fully within their rights to consider themselves independent," said the Russian envoy.

He also claimed that under the Zelenskyy administration, "Hitler's comrades in arms have become heroes and the real heroes have become nobodies".

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday announced that Moscow was recognizing Luhansk and Donetsk as "independent" states, followed quickly by sending Russian forces there to "maintain peace."

Nebenzia said the people of Donetsk and Luhansk did not waver from implementing the Minsk agreements and believed that they would be granted special status.

"As it turned out, these hopes were dashed," said Nebenzia. "Our country could not remain indifferent to the fate of the 4 million people of Donbas."

The Russian envoy also urged UN member states to focus efforts on reining in Kyiv and "deterring it from conducting a new military adventure that might cost the whole of Ukraine."