Putin’s spokesman: Kremlin disappointed with West’s indifference to civilian casualties in Donetsk

Takeaways from Dmitry Peskov’s daily briefing

“They said nothing about Donetsk yesterday, they have said nothing about it today”

The Kremlin has been disappointed with the absence of Western politicians’ reaction to civilian casualties after the Ukrainian Armed Forces bombarded them in Donetsk on 14 March. The Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has reported on this and much more today.

“European leaders, my colleague [White House spokeswoman

Jen] Psaki, her boss, US President [Joe] Biden, leaders of international organisations, the NATO management said nothing about Donetsk yesterday, they have said nothing about it today, they have said nothing about those civilians who died from a missile launched by Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” TASS cites Peskov’s words.

He paid attention to the fact that all the above-mentioned people “didn’t talk about those terrors unfolding in Donetsk and they discussed nothing.”

We should remind you that Ukrainian militaries attacked Donetsk with Tochka-U missile, as a result of which 21 people died. Tens of people were wounded, there are children among them. Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin claimed that the missile had cluster munitions. The authorities consider the strike as a terrorist attack. The Russian Investigative Committee launched a criminal case on this fact. The committee indicated that the Ukrainian nationalists violated provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Convention on Laws and Customs of War on Land again. Due to the emergency, mourning was declared in the DPR.

“The situation has changed dramatically”

New talks with the West on security guarantees would still be in demand, Putin’s spokesman said.

“[But] the situation has changed dramatically. Certainly, new nuances, new accents have appeared. All this will have to be taken into consideration in the future,” Peskov stated.

He claimed that it was unlikely the talks would continue like before.

Head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov recently claimed after a meeting with his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba that Russia was ready to discuss security guarantees of Ukraine together with security guarantees of European countries.

“We try to use the existing difficulties in our interests”

At the same time, Dmitry Peskov disagrees with the opinion of the White House’s representative Jen Psaki that the US and its allies allegedly “crushed” the Russian economy with sanctions.

He admitted that “Russia’s economy is experiencing difficulties” but added that this was temporary and was “an opportunity for development, for an upgrade, for gaining greater independence, for setting up new production.

“We have a good saying ‘A blessing in disguise.’ We try to use the existing difficulties in our interests,” concluded Peskov.

“The job is tough”

The spokesman thinks the fact the talks of the delegations of Russia and Ukraine go on is positive.

“There is a job done between the two delegations, you know that it is done via teleconference. The job is tough,” the Kremlin representative claimed.

After the fourth round of talks between the Russian Federation and Ukraine via teleconference on Monday, Adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office Mykhailo Podolyak claimed that a technical pause was taken, the talks would continue on Tuesday.

Realnoe Vremya is staying tuned for the events. Read the details in the online newspaper’s special report.

Daria Pinegina