Fact-check 03 · Nebenzia at the Security Council, 9 October 2026
The 10237th meeting was called after the strikes of 7–8 October. Russia's Permanent Representative spoke for twelve minutes. Six claims carry the whole statement; each is set against Russia's own Ministry of Defence statements, UN findings and the weapons identified at the sites. Quotations from the UN verbatim record and Russia's published English text (russiaun.ru); both are linked on the Sources page.
The UN, the same weekSecretary-General, 7 Oct: "strongly condemns the ongoing attacks on major Ukrainian cities" by Russian forces — "a record number of civilian casualties". High Commissioner, 8 Oct: Kramatorsk "could amount to war crimes". ASG Khiari, 9 Oct, same meeting: 100+ killed, 429 injured in one week.
The frame for every claim belowAmb. Nebenzia spoke after the Secretary-General's statement and in the meeting that opened with the OHCHR figures. None of the six claims engages either. → UN on the record Claim 1 · Denial"We decisively reject baseless accusations that the Russian Armed Forces have presumably targeted the civilian population of Ukraine on purpose. Our targets have been and remain only military facilities and infrastructure."
Contradicted by Russia's own MoDThe MoD's 7 Oct target list names an industrial plant in Pryluky; the impact site was a residential building and five children died. On 14 Oct the MoD named Kyiv's three heat-and-power plants as targets. Kramatorsk, 8 Oct: a UMPB D-30SN guided bomb on two passenger buses — 33 killed; no military target has been claimed. "Only military facilities" is a statement about intent; the sites are a statement of fact. Sources: russiaun.ru ↗ (archived) · MoD 7 Oct ↗ (archived) · MoD 14 Oct ↗ (archived) Claim 2 · Ukraine did it"Why Ukrainian forces are stationing air defense systems in residential areas, thus endangering the lives of ordinary Ukrainians. The Kiev authorities are ascribing the blame for the tragedies that are occurring due to the inadequate performance of Ukraine's air defense systems to us… violating Article 58 of Additional Protocol I."
Wrong weapon, wrong articleGuided (glide) bombs — Kramatorsk 8 Oct, Zaporizhzhia 10 Oct, Kharkiv 2, 5 and 11 Oct — are released from aircraft and are not engaged by Ukrainian air defence at all; there is no interceptor and no debris. Of the 39 ballistic missiles on 14 Oct, 35 were not intercepted: they arrived. Art. 58 obliges the defender to take precautions; it does not suspend arts. 51 and 57 for the attacker. No evidence of an air-defence position at any of the five sites has been offered. Sources: russiaun.ru ↗ (archived) · Air Force 14 Oct ↗ (archived) · weapon ID ↗ (archived) Claim 3 · Staged"They seek to blame Russia for their failures. Various provocations and staged incidents are used to this end. Instead of evidence and facts, once again, we only hear 'highly likely'."
The evidence is on the recordOHCHR verifies each casualty from two independent sources or a field visit; the High Commissioner spoke on Kramatorsk within hours; the Security Council was briefed with figures ("more than 100 civilians killed and at least 429 injured" in one week). Police identified the Kramatorsk weapon by fragments. The "staged" line is the Bucha line of April 2022, which Russia itself abandoned in 2026 (see Fact-check 02). Sources: UN transcript ↗ (archived) · OHCHR 8 Oct ↗ (archived) · SC briefing ↗ (archived) Claim 4 · Energy = military"A predictable response followed from the Russian armed forces against the facilities of Ukraine's military industrial complex, as well as energy infrastructure involved in military production and logistics."
Already adjudicatedThe ICC examined the same argument for the 2022–23 energy campaign and issued four arrest warrants (war crime of attacking civilian objects; crime against humanity). "Predictable response" is a reprisal, prohibited against civilian objects (AP I art. 51(6)); objects indispensable to survival are protected absolutely (art. 54). The 14 Oct MoD list — CHP-4, CHP-5, CHP-6, Trypilska — is the plants that heat Kyiv. Sources: russiaun.ru ↗ (archived) · ICC warrants ↗ (archived) · MoD 14 Oct ↗ (archived) Claim 5 · Mirror"Terror against civilians and civilian infrastructure has long become one of the tools of Zelensky's state policy. Residential neighborhoods, civilian buses, hospitals, ambulances, and energy and life-support facilities are targeted time and time again."
Said the day after KramatorskThe list — buses, hospitals, ambulances, energy — is the list of Russian strikes of the preceding week: two buses in Kramatorsk (8 Oct), ambulances in Kramatorsk (5 Oct), a hospital in Kryvyi Rih (6 Oct), Kyiv energy (7–8 Oct). The "216 buses" figure had been seeded by the MFA's Miroshnik on 1 Oct. OHCHR records casualties on both sides: 496 civilians killed in Russia Jan–Sep 2026, against 2,222 in Ukraine Jan–Aug — the asymmetry is in the record, not hidden by it. Sources: russiaun.ru ↗ (archived) · Miroshnik 1 Oct ↗ (archived) · OHCHR Aug 2026 ↗ (archived) Claim 6 · UN bias (Arria, 14 Oct)"The victim of this campaign has also become our Organization, which is doing everything to avoid documenting the crimes of the Kiev regime, while simultaneously making unfounded accusations against Russia."
Access, not biasOHCHR's methodology is public and symmetrical; the difference in volume is access. OHCHR visits Ukrainian detention sites and is refused entry to every Russian one; the UN mission on Olenivka was denied access and disbanded. Russia's remedy — invite HRMMU to occupied territory — has been available since 2022. Sources: SCR What's in Blue ↗ (archived) · TASS 14 Oct ↗ (archived)
Fact-check 03 · six-page dossier (PDF) p.1 one-page summary · p.2 the speaker and the venue · p.3 the six claims against the record · p.4 what the statement omits · p.5 what it concedes since 2022 · p.6 sources and how to use it
The shape of the statement
Four moves, in order: deny intent → shift causation to Ukrainian air defence → call the evidence staged → reframe energy strikes as retaliation. Not one incident of the week was addressed by name. The same four moves appear in the MFA statement of 3 Oct ("strikes of retribution"), the MoD of 4 Oct ("blame only the head of the Kyiv regime") and Zakharova of 7 Oct (foreigners should leave Kyiv so that no "provocative staging" is claimed). The open question: which military objective was at each of the five sites. No answer has been given.