UK Tells OSCE Russia Must Show Evidence Behind Its Claims, Condemns Strikes on Dnipro Station and Civilians
The UK government published on November 5 a statement by Colonel Joby Rimmer, UK Senior Military Advisor, to the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation, condemning Russia's deadly strikes on Ukrainian civilians and challenging Russia to show the evidence behind the claims it presents to the Forum.
Rimmer said that on October 29 a Russian drone struck a crowded platform at Dnipro's main railway station as a commuter train prepared to depart, killing at least 14 people; on the same day, Russian strikes killed two children in Chernihiv and at least three people in Kremenchuk. He also condemned Russia's double-tap strike on November 2 against civilians gathering for humanitarian aid in Komyshuvakha, which killed at least 33 people, including police officers and rescue workers.
Each week, Rimmer said, Russia brings presentations to the Forum and offers them as fact, but too often the material does not support the claims made. On September 23, he said, Russia told the Forum that experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross had verified the complete absence of military targets at the Wildberries warehouses in the Leningrad region, yet the UK is not aware of any statement from the ICRC itself confirming it, and he requested that Russia provide the ICRC's own confirmation. On October 7, Russia cited its own Foreign Intelligence Service to support claims about a European Union recruitment policy that the EU had explicitly denied a month earlier.
On Russia's use of photographs as proof, Rimmer said the images of mines, munitions and launchers presented on September 30 came with no incident-specific dates, recovery locations, provenance, chain of custody, or independently verifiable information connecting any item to a particular attack. Last week's Russian presentation, he added, contained 12 slides of damaged homes, shops, a church and a substation in which every caption blamed Ukraine but not a single slide explained how culpability was established; many photographs were undated, those dated went back as far as April, and not a single photograph was from October.
Rimmer said such claims will not weaken international support for Ukraine. The United Kingdom announced on October 28 over GBP10 billion of additional economic and military support for Ukraine, its largest package to date, including GBP500 million for Ukraine's air defences this winter, on top of a commitment of GBP3 billion a year; in total, the UK has now committed GBP35 billion to Ukraine, including GBP16.5 billion in military support. He also welcomed the United States' approval on October 30 of the potential sale of 500 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, funded entirely by Ukraine's partners and allies.
(Source: UK Government)
Source: UK Government
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：乌克兰Dnipro火车站（资料图，2019年摄）。VKras 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Dnipro railway station in Ukraine (file photo, 2019). Photo by VKras, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
