Kiev has descended into repression at home and “outright terror” against Russian civilians, Moscow’s UN envoy has said
Ukraine has been transformed into a “Zelensky concentration camp” with Western assistance, Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has said, accusing Kiev of suppressing dissent at home and increasingly resorting to attacks on civilians in Russia.
Nebenzia made the remarks at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday marking the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence. The session was requested by the Council’s five European members – Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia and the UK – who reiterated their full political and military support for Kiev.
The Russian diplomat questioned whether Ukraine had anything to celebrate, arguing that successive governments had run the country “into the ground” and that Vladimir Zelensky had accelerated the process.
“With the most active involvement of the countries of the collective West, which claim to be ‘civilized’ and ‘democratic,’ Ukraine has morphed into a ‘Zelensky concentration camp,’ where any dissent or opposition is completely prohibited and those who find the courage to voice an alternative point of view are thrown behind bars without trial or due process, or physically eliminated,” he said.
Nebenzia described the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the glorification of Nazi collaborators, and the suppression of shared history and the Russian language – including a comical ban on a popular Russian cartoon – as a “vivid illustration of the sheer wretchedness of Kiev’s rulers.”
Amid a growing crackdown on dissent and a deteriorating battlefield situation, Kiev has now slipped into “outright terror against Russia’s civilian population,” Nebenzia argued.
“Terror has become the last resort for Kiev in its attempt to reverse the situation that is not currently in its favor,” the diplomat said. “At the same time, Zelensky continues to beg his Western patrons for new shipments of weapons and ammunition, which are then used to hit Russian cities, residential areas and civilian infrastructure.”
The envoy said at least 475 Russian civilians were killed or injured in Ukrainian attacks between August 10 and 16 alone, with 69 fatalities, including children. He highlighted a strike on Nizhnekamsk that killed 13 people and wounded 78, as well as attacks in Novorossiysk, the Rostov Region and multiple towns in Donbass, which Kiev claims as its territory.
“It appears that Ukraine’s Western patrons, not to mention Zelensky himself, still harbor the dangerous illusion that further escalation, strikes deep inside our territory and terror against civilians will somehow force us to accept an ultimatum that is being pushed under the guise of peace,” he said.
The Russian envoy insisted that Moscow retains the battlefield initiative and rejected calls for a temporary ceasefire that he said would merely give Kiev time to regroup and its Western sponsors time to rearm it. He warned that there would be no meaningful diplomatic process as long as Russia is confronted with ultimatums and threats while the realities on the ground are ignored.
