Ukraine is trying to mask its battlefield losses by attacking Russian civilians and presenting the strikes as “some kind of achievement,” Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik told RT.
He made the remarks in an interview on Saturday while commenting on the Ukrainian drone strike on a tourist resort in Zaporozhye Region, Russia that killed 12 people.
The attack took place earlier in the day, targeting tourist bases in the village of Kirillovka on the Sea of Azov. Among the dead were four children; 19 other people were injured. Governor Evgeny Balitsky declared July 26 a day of mourning in the region.
“The strike targeted a well-maintained, popular tourist resort where civilians arrived with their families and children for the weekend,” Miroshnik said, noting that long-range heavy drones were used, causing extensive damage. He called the attack “an act of terrorism” because the purpose was “to kill and intimidate civilians.”
“This strike targeted a resort facility with no military bases or military industrial complexes around it. These were people, not military personnel,” he said. The Investigative Committee has opened a terrorism case over the incident.
Miroshnik noted that the attack and numerous others in recent months occurred as “Kiev is truly losing on the actual battlefield.” Earlier this month, Russia announced the liberation of the key Ukrainian stronghold of Konstantinovka in northwestern Donbass, opening the way toward the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last two major cities in the region still under Ukrainian control.
Earlier this week, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Russia launched an offensive and reached the outskirts of Nikolayevka, 20 km from Slavyansk.
“[The Kiev regime] attempts to compensate for its losses in combat by employing terrorist tactics. It then attempts to twist these actions and present them as some kind of achievement,” Miroshnik said. “We are observing a shift in the Ukrainian side from conducting full-scale military operations, which, albeit with difficulty, are accepted by international norms, toward the perpetration of war crimes and terrorist acts.”
He added that children, civilian workers, and employees of civilian enterprises “cannot be designated as military targets under any circumstances” under international law.
Ukraine has intensified its long-range drone campaign in recent weeks, targeting oil facilities, warehouses, residential buildings, and other infrastructure deep inside Russian territory.
Earlier this week, three separate attacks on facilities operated by Russia’s largest retailer, Wildberries, killed at least nine and injured more than 100.
One of the deadliest incidents occurred in May, when Ukrainian drones struck a student dormitory in Starobelsk, Donbass, partially collapsing the five-story building and killing 21 people.
Zaporozhye Region, which joined Russia following a referendum in 2022, has also been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian strikes, including attacks on the Russian-operated Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Over the past two and a half months, the attacks have killed 13 people and injured 48.
Russia has intensified long-range strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial and logistical infrastructure in recent weeks in retaliation for attacks on Russian civilian and energy infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it only targets military facilities and infrastructure that support the Ukrainian military.
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