Russia Keeps Almost 110,000 Troops near Ukraine’s Borders, Continues to Supply Weapons to Donbas

Ukraine has called on the Russian Federation to cease supplying weapons to the occupied territories of Donbas, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Yuri Vitrenko said at an informal meeting of the Security Council dedicated to the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.

“We take this opportunity to reiterate our call to the Russian Federation to uphold its commitments and obligations under the international law, as well the existing international instruments…, including the UN Security Council resolutions, by ceasing its destabilising illegal transfers of armaments to Ukraine without delay,” the diplomat said.

He also recalled that since March 2021, Ukraine has been under the threat of a new, large-scale military attack by Russia due to the concentration of approximately 110,000 troops of the Russian Federation near Ukraine’s eastern borders and in the occupied Crimea.

By supplying weapons to the occupied territories, in particular, under the guise of so-called humanitarian convoys, Russia is “deliberately destabilising not only sub-regional, but the entire European arms control architecture,” Vitrenko stressed.

The diplomat quoted the UN Secretary-General as saying at the beginning of the Russian aggression that “armaments and heavy weapons continue to flow into Ukraine from Russia,” which is a key obstacle to de-escalation of the situation.

Note that elections to the State Duma started in Russia on 17 September. Voting will last until 19 September.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine protested against the illegal organisation and conduct of voting by Russia in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the forced involvement of Ukrainian citizens in the elections using Russian citizens’ passports, which were issued to them illegally in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Bohdan Marusyak