On June 5, 2015 U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power spoke to the recent developments in Eastern Ukraine at a UN Security Council Meeting on Ukraine.
Read @AmbassadorPower’s remarks on the ongoing aggression by #Russia in eastern #Ukraine: http://t.co/ctJzoRRxI4
— US Mission to the UN (@USUN) 5 Червень 2015
Samantha Power said that on June 3, 2015, combined Russian-separatist forces launched multiple, coordinated attacks west of the Minsk line of contact in Donetsk. The attacks were concentrated on the towns of Marinka and Krasnohorivka. As usual, the Russian Federation and its separatist allies have offered multiple – often conflicting – explanations for these attacks, blamed Ukraine for “provocations”, and gave false arguments.
“The problem with this line of argument is, quite simply, that it is false. At no point did the Minsk Agreements recognize Marinka and Krasnohorivka as separatist-controlled territory. Nor did they grant the separatists control over Debaltseve or other areas combined Russian-separatist forces have seized, or tried to seize. Yet for Russia and the separatists, it seems the contact line can shift to include the territories that they feel they deserve,” stated Samantha Power.
Russia & separatist allies gave conflicting accts of their attacks – #Russia denies, while separatist tweets "#Marinka is ours!"
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) 5 Червень 2015
PHOTO:United for Ukraine
“By now, the international community is quite familiar with Russia’s playbook when it comes to efforts to occupy the territory of its sovereign neighbors – as it did in Crimea, and before that in Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. The consensus here, and in the international community, remains that Minsk’s implementation is the only viable way out of this deadly conflict,” underlined U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power
Last wk Putin decreed deaths of Russian soldiers in peacetime "special ops" a state secret. Denies rec of Russian soldiers in life & death.
— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) 5 Червень 2015
“We also do not know how many Russian soldiers were killed in recent attacks – or in any of their operations in eastern Ukraine, for that matter. Russia continues – despite incidents such as the recent capture of two special operations Russian soldiers in Schastya last month – to deny any military involvement in eastern Ukraine.”
“And just last week, President Putin signed a decree classifying any death of Russian soldiers in “special operations” in peacetime a state secret, a policy which previously was limited to wartime only. Not content with denying their military service in life, Russia now denies their loved ones the respect and closure – not to mention social services – for their service in death. And it denies the Russian people knowledge to which they are entitled – of a conflict their government has been fueling with weapons, training, and soldiers. No matter what your opinion of the open secret that is Russia’s military involvement in eastern Ukraine and occupied Crimea, the dignified recognition of one’s dead should have primacy.”
