Russian UN ambassador says strikes on Ukraine will continue until Kyiv 'returns to the negotiating table'

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said that Russia’s missile attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on Wednesday were launched in response to Western countries’ supplies of weapons to Ukraine, Interfax reported.

“We’re carrying out strikes on infrastructure in Ukraine in response to the way the country has been pumped with Western weapons and to Kyiv’s reckless calls for military victory over Russia,” Nebenzya said at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that was convened at Ukraine’s initiative after Russia’s latest round of attacks.

According to Nebenzya, Russia will continue the missile strikes until Kyiv takes a “realistic position” and returns to the negotiating table. He also blamed the deaths of Ukrainian civilians on Wednesday on Ukrainian troops, saying the “missile fragments or stray missiles are landing on objects that were not targeted by Russia.”

Speaking at the meeting by video link, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the UN to send an expert mission to Ukraine to examine the state of the country’s critical infrastructure.