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STORY: UN / UKRAINE CIVILIANS
TRT: 05:35
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 08 APRIL 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
08 APRIL 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher speaking
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“A massive strike in the densely populated city of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipro region last Friday resulted in multiple civilian casualties – the second fatal attack on the city in a week. According to the authorities, 18 civilians were killed, including nine children, and 75 others injured when a children’s playground and nearby residential area were hit.”
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Civilian infrastructure – including healthcare facilities, apartment blocks, schools and children’s playgrounds – have suffered extensive damage. This brutal pattern of civilian death and destruction in populated areas must stop.”
6. Med shot, Fletcher speaking
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Civilians are paying a devastating price for this horrendous war. OHCHR has now verified the killing of at least 12,910 civilians, including 682 children, and the injury of almost 30,700 across Ukraine from 24 February 2022 to 31 March 2025. The true toll is likely far greater.”
8. Wide shot, Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“We welcome the announcement of a ceasefire focused on energy infrastructure, as well as negotiations to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea. Ultimately the best protection of civilians is that this war ends. Until it does, the negotiating priority – whether as part of a temporary pause or lasting agreement – must start from the protection and needs of civilians.”
10. Wide shot, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia speaking
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“As a ministry of Defence of Russia stated, as a result of a precision and missile strike with a high explosive charge against the location of a meeting of unit commanders and Western instructors, about 85 servicemen and officers of warring states and about 20 vehicles. This operation did damage to the command of the Ukrainian forces and a number of NATO armies who had sent their instructors to Ukraine. Under this context. We would like to recall that we on many occasions warned that a gathering of service members, as well as that of Western officer instructors sent to help Kiev, that all of these are legitimate targets for the Russian army. Unfortunately, because of unprofessional actions by a Ukrainian, air defence, the intercepting Ukrainian missile was the reason for the lives lost in the territories next to the restaurant.”
12. Med shot, Ukraine representative Khrystyna Hayovyshyn
13. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“Our attention is drawn to the fact that information about strikes of Ukrainian military objects in Ukrainian towns is presented by the Zelensky regime as a fact showing that Russia is not ready for peace and is trying to undermine the peace initiatives of the new American administration. It is clear that these attempts, the goal that have is to undermine the American Russian dialogue and torpedo the potential agreements.”
14. Med shot, United States Ambassador Dorothy Shea
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Dorothy Shea, Acting Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“In bilateral engagements with both Russia and Ukraine, the United States has proposed a comprehensive ceasefire. In March, Ukraine’s representatives informed us that they were ready to accept the proposal. The Russian Federation’s representatives insisted on more limited agreements, which would cover only strikes on energy infrastructure and elimination of the use of force in the Black Sea. Ukraine indicated agreement with those proposals. To achieve the goal of peace, both Ukraine and Russia must fully implement the ceasefire commitments they have already made in Riyadh. These initial steps, if fully implemented, will protect lives and improve livelihoods. Even more importantly, they could offer a basis for expanding a comprehensive ceasefire and negotiation towards a final, durable peace.”
16. Med shot, Hayovyshyn speaking
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, Chargée d’Affaires, Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Ukraine:
“We categorically reject Russia's blatant falsehoods about alleged military targets in the area. Facts from the crime scene make it clear: there were no military objectives in the vicinity. Russia's true aim was deliberate terror against civilians. Russia must be held accountable for everything it has done. To end this war, it is necessary to put pressure on them – real pressure – without wasting time on empty talk.”
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, Chargée d’Affaires, Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Ukraine:
“Moscow speaks about peace while launching brutal strikes daily on densely populated residential areas in major Ukrainian cities. These strikes are abhorrent and appalling war crimes constituting a grave violation
of international humanitarian law. With these barbaric attacks against Ukrainian civilians and children, Russia
demonstrates its complete disregard for international peace efforts led by the United States.”
19. Wide shot, end of meeting
Following “a massive strike” in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih last Friday which resulted in multiple civilian casualties, and a series of attacks against civilian infrastructure United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher today (8 Apr) told the Security Council that “this brutal pattern of civilian death and destruction in populated areas must stop.”
Fletcher told the Council that according to authorities, “18 civilians were killed, including nine children, and 75 others injured when a children’s playground and nearby residential area were hit,” and noted that in recent weeks “civilian infrastructure – including healthcare facilities, apartment blocks, schools and children’s playgrounds – have suffered extensive damage.”
The humanitarian Chief said, “civilians are paying a devastating price for this horrendous war,” with at least 12,910 civilians killed, including 682 children, and almost 30,700 injured across Ukraine from 24 February 2022 to 31 March 2025.”
The true toll, he said, “is likely far greater.”
Fletcher welcomed the recent announcement of a ceasefire focused on energy infrastructure, as well as negotiations to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and said, “ultimately the best protection of civilians is that this war ends. Until it does, the negotiating priority – whether as part of a temporary pause or lasting agreement – must start from the protection and needs of civilians.”
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Council that “as a result of a precision and missile strike with a high explosive charge against the location of a meeting of unit commanders and Western instructors, about 85 servicemen and officers of warring states and about 20 vehicles.”
He acknowledged that the operation “did damage to the command of the Ukrainian forces and a number of NATO armies who had sent their instructors to Ukraine,” and said, “unfortunately, because of unprofessional actions by a Ukrainian, air defence, the intercepting Ukrainian missile was the reason for the lives lost in the territories next to the restaurant.”
Nebenzia said these incidents were being “presented by the Zelensky regime as a fact showing that Russia is not ready for peace and is trying to undermine the peace initiatives of the new American administration.”
He said it was “clear that these attempts, the goal that have is to undermine the American Russian dialogue and torpedo the potential agreements.”
United states Ambassador Dorothy Sheatold the Council that the United States “has proposed a comprehensive ceasefire” which had been accepted by Ukraine. She said the Russian Federation “insisted on more limited agreements, which would cover only strikes on energy infrastructure and elimination of the use of force in the Black Sea,” and Ukraine had agreed with those proposals.
The US Ambassador stressed that “to achieve the goal of peace, both Ukraine and Russia must fully implement the ceasefire commitments they have already made in Riyadh,” as “these initial steps, if fully implemented, will protect lives and improve livelihoods.”
“Even more importantly,” she said, “they could offer a basis for expanding a comprehensive ceasefire and negotiation towards a final, durable peace.”
For her part, Ukrainian representative Khrystyna Hayovyshyn “categorically” rejected “Russia's blatant falsehoods about alleged military targets in the area.”
She said, “facts from the crime scene make it clear: there were no military objectives in the vicinity,” and added that “Russia's true aim was deliberate terror against civilians. Russia must be held accountable for everything it has done.”
Hayovyshyn said, “Moscow speaks about peace while launching brutal strikes daily on densely populated residential areas in major Ukrainian cities. These strikes are abhorrent and appalling war crimes constituting a grave violation
of international humanitarian law. With these barbaric attacks against Ukrainian civilians and children, Russia
demonstrates its complete disregard for international peace efforts led by the United States.”
