PRESS RELEASE

Russian Foreign Ministry Blasts NATO Ukraine Policy

Aug. 6, 2014 (EIRNS)—The Russian Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued statements Aug. 4 and 5 about the horrific situation of the population in eastern Ukraine, calling for international action. They also deplored the continuing confrontationism of NATO.

The Aug. 4 statement on “the deterioration of the situation in southeastern Ukraine” described a worsening humanitarian disaster in many cities. It cited civilian casualties from Ukrainian Army shelling, and the breakdown of infrastructure in Lugansk, a city of over 400,000: no water supply, no cell phone communications, damage to natural gas lines, and destruction of several hospitals and clinics. Air strikes in Donetsk, population 1 million, took out a power station for the south side of the city. In Gorlovka (Horlivka), 40 civilians died in shelling. “Yet the Ukrainian Army continues to bring Tochka U [SS-21 short-range ballistic] missiles, and Smerch and Uragan artillery toward Donetsk. How maybe more will be killed by these weapons?” asked the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Indeed, that same day Ukrainian officials urged the entire (!) population of Donetsk, Lugansk and Gorlovka to evacuate. The civilian casualties, together with Kiev’s stonewalling of an investigation of the Odessa Trade Union Building massacre of May 2 and the ongoing detention and harassment of journalists, said the Russian Foreign Ministry,

“confirms the need for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, and the commencement of negotiations on resolving the essential issues of the future form of organization of that country.”