Ukraine using civilians as human shield - Russia's representative

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On Sunday, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, addressed the overwhelming spread of disinformation on media outlets regarding the situation in Ukraine, particularly the special military operation which Russia has launched last week.

"Today we witness an information war on Russia in social media. Since there are no proofs that Russian military destroy civilian infrastructure, Ukrainian strikes and occasional hits are presented as such, as well as photo and video footage from Donbas that again depict crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists," Nebenzia said.

Nebenzia added, "in social media one can easily find tutorials that teach how to shoot fakes that should defile our special operation. All in all, there are 1.2 million such fakes in Ukrainian social media."

Read more: Russian watchdog tells Russian media to delete false data on Ukraine operation

Furthermore, the representative spoke of how the Ukrainian army is using civilians as human shields, violating international humanitarian law which Western politicians have been ignoring. This sight has not, according to the envoy, received coverage in foreign media despite that Ukrainians themselves have been seeing this. The tactics, as said by the envoy, are similar to "that of [Daesh] terrorists,"  adding that "all responsibility for possible consequences rests with the Maidan regime." 

Furthermore, Nebenzia addressed the worrying situation where weapons are distributed in an unregulated and irresponsible way among radical militias and authorities as well as anyone willing to obtain them, including criminals and looters.

He said people have been shot due to this situation though their authenticity cannot be confirmed as the Ukrainian authorities stay silent regarding this issue.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian militants have been positioning artillery in residential areas, which is a technique notorious to US military and intelligence in order to target civilians more and result in casualties: “These methods are actively used by terrorists supervised by the CIA in the Middle East and other countries."

EU to provide over $500 million to buy arms for Ukraine

European Union members states agreed Sunday to allocate more than $500 million for members to buy arms for Ukraine, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

The 27-nation bloc is not the first entity to supply arms to Ukraine, and despite Hungary earlier refusing to send arms to Kiev, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that her country would break its doctrine of not sending arms to countries in "conflict" and send military equipment, including anti-tank launchers, to Ukraine.

"Sweden is now proposing direct support for Ukraine's armed forces. It includes 135,000 field rations, 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body shields, and 5,000 anti-tank weapons" Andersson told reporters.

NATO also went along with the decision of arming Kiev, pledging to escalate its military deliveries to Ukraine despite Kiev not being part of the alliance. The deliveries will include anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems and ammunition to Ukraine, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday.

The Defense Minister of the Czech Republic, Jana Cernochova, announced Saturday that Prague would provide Ukraine with $8.6 million in military equipment as well. Canada also joined the race and sent lethal weapons and transport aircraft to Ukraine.