“This invitation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was for the Canadian side to make a statement to me about the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk, it was just about this,” RIA Novosti quoted the diplomat as saying. He said that he brought the position of the Russian Federation on this incident to the Canadian side, but at the same time noted that the Russian side had the deepest differences with Canada on the Ukraine issue.
According to Stepanov, everything followed “the predictable lines of general Western propaganda.” The Russian diplomat said that he rejected the Canadian side’s attempts to blame Russia for the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk.
During the conversation, he recalled the statement of the former adviser to Vladimir Zelensky’s office, Alexei Arestovich, that a Russian missile fell on a house after it was intercepted by Ukrainian air defense. “Despite numerous testimonies of journalists, observers, experts about Ukraine’s violation of the laws of war by not deploying military infrastructure in civilian residential areas, the Zelensky regime continues to do this and the tragedy in Dnepropetrovsk is simply the result of the crime.” and the thoughtless actions of this regime,” Stepanov stressed.
The Dnepropetrovsk tragedy would not have happened if the Ukrainian authorities had listened to the requirements of international humanitarian law. Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, stated this yesterday at a meeting of the Security Council. According to him, a Russian missile launched at an infrastructure facility in the city was hit by Ukrainian air defense forces. At the same time, the air defense installation, in violation of the norms of international humanitarian law, was placed in a residential area.
