"This month the UN Security Council discussed the situation in Ukraine twice. Unfortunately, the discussions have been extremely politicized. The tragedies that occurred there recently were used rather as opportunities to generate hysteria, than as a basis for a fair discussion of the real causes of the Ukrainian conflict and solutions to it," Churkin said.
Last week, the UN Security Council failed to agree on a press statement, following an attack on the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, which killed at least 30 civilians. The same day, the Russian Mission to the United Nations stressed that since the very start of the Ukrainian conflict, Western members of the UN Security Council have consistently refused to condemn "any statements and actions (often very aggressive) made by the Kiev authorities".
The conflict in southeastern Ukraine has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people since April. Despite the ceasefire agreed in September, fighting in the region has intensified dramatically in recent weeks, with multiple instances of deadly shelling killing dozens of civilians in Donetsk, Mariupol and other cities.
