Three missiles fall on the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine
The UN human rights office has received “documented reports” that Russian forces are using cluster munitions in Ukraine, in populated areas, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law, a UN official said.
Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said at a meeting of the UN Security Council that residential areas and infrastructure are being bombed in Mariupol, Kharkov, Sumy and Chernihiv, noting that “the mass destruction in these cities is appalling.”
She stated that most of the civilian casualties recorded by the United Nations Human Rights Office, 564 dead and 982 injured as of Thursday, “were as a result of the use of explosive weapons with a wide-area effect, including heavy artillery, multiple launch missile systems, missile and air strikes.”
It added that “indiscriminate attacks, including those using cluster munitions, that would strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without discrimination, are prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
American “Biological Activities”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield said Friday’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council convened by Russia to discuss Moscow’s stated allegations without evidence of US “biological activities” in Ukraine could be a “pretext” for something being carried out.
picture released, AFP
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield
Emphasizing Washington’s position that Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program or what are said to be US-backed laboratories, Thomas Greenfield said that it was Russia that could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.
Although the US ambassador has not yet presented evidence of an imminent threat during the 15-nation Security Council meeting, she said, “Russia has a record record of false accusations by other countries of violations committed by Russia itself.”
US President Joe Biden had vowed to avoid a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, “leading to a third world war”, at a time when he announced that his country would ban the export of luxury products to Russia.
“We will not go to war with Russia in Ukraine,” Biden said in a speech at the White House, warning that Russia would “pay a heavy price if chemical weapons were used” in Ukraine.
“foreign mercenaries“
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine had reached a strategic turning point in its fight against Russia, which he said relies on Syrian recruits, reserve forces and mercenaries to reinforce the invasion forces.
In a daily televised address from Kyiv, Zelensky called on the international community to intensify sanctions pressure on Russia if it did not back down.
“It is impossible to say how many days we still have to work on the liberation of Ukrainian lands. But we can say that we will. Because we have already reached a strategic turning point,” he said.
He added that Ukraine is fighting an enemy that “gathers reserve forces and conscripts from all over Russia to throw them into war, and (the enemy) is bringing mercenaries against our people. (They are) shabiha from Syria.”
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light to deploy up to 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East to bolster the invasion, which the West says has lost momentum.
Oleksiy Aristovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said that the move to recruit volunteers from the Middle East is evidence of the weakness of the Russian army.
“Where is the strength of the Russian army if it is unable to do anything with non-Syrians? If they want us to kill 16,000 Syrians as well, let them bring them to us,” Aristovich said in a televised statement.
Addressing his defense minister, Putin said, “If you see that there are those willing, on their own, and not for money, to come to the aid of the people in Donbass, then we need to give them what they want and help them enter the battlefield.”
Shoigu also proposed handing over captured Western anti-tank missile systems to Russian-backed separatist fighters in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of the Donbass region.
“Please do it,” Putin said.
picture released, Archyde.com
Vladimir Putin, Russian President
Meanwhile, private US security companies are seeking the help of former soldiers to help evacuate civilians stranded in Ukraine.
There are reports that foreign fighters, including former and current soldiers in the British army, have arrived in Ukraine to defend the capital, Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Zelensky announced that more than 16,000 volunteers in what he described as an “international legion” to defend Kyiv.