Melnyk at UN Security Council: Russia manipulates facts to justify war

Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN Andrii Melnyk said Russia is attempting to create a new "victim narrative" to justify the continuation of its aggression against Ukraine and possible new strikes.

"We are witnessing yet another attempt by the Russian Federation and Putin’s broader disinformation machine to cynically fabricate and construct a new victim narrative," Melnyk said during his address to the UN Security Council.

According to the diplomat, Russia is using "a mixture of lies, manipulations and deliberate distortions" in an attempt to portray itself as a victim of the war.

Melnyk stressed that responsibility for the casualties of the war "lies with one person — Putin and the military monster he commands."

Ukraine’s permanent representative also said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine strike exclusively legitimate military targets in accordance with international humanitarian law and "never target civilians."

The diplomat also compared Russia’s massive attack on Kyiv on the night of May 24 to "Armageddon."

As reported, Ukraine initiated an emergency UN Security Council meeting and a joint meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation and the OSCE Permanent Council following Russia’s massive attack on the night of May 24, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

Russia carried out its largest ever missile attack on Ukraine on the night of May 23-24, killing four civilians and wounding over 100. In Kyiv alone, two people were killed, 91 were wounded and around 300 facilities were damaged, half of them residential buildings. The enemy launched a massive combined strike on Ukraine using attack UAVs and air-, sea- and ground-launched missiles. Russian forces were reported to have used Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles in particular.