Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.<\/p>\n
We are saddened by reports of the incident on 17 June involving a bus carrying Belarusian civilians in Bryansk, Russia.<\/p>\n
Our thoughts are with the families of those killed and injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Civilians must never bear the consequences of conflict, and children must always be protected.<\/p>\n
At present, we are not aware of any independent verification of the circumstances surrounding the incident.<\/p>\n
We note that Ukraine has publicly denied any claims that a Ukrinaian drone struck the bus.<\/p>\n
What we do know is that if Russia truly wished to protect civilians, it would agree to a full, immediate, and unconditional ceasefire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to OCHA, over 16,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its war of choice on 24 February 2022.<\/p>\n
None of this would be happening had Russia not launched its illegal full-scale invasion against Ukraine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
President, the United Kingdom\u2019s position is consistent and clear: all allegations of civilian harm should be taken seriously, wherever they occur.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The protection of civilians remains a fundamental obligation under international humanitarian law.<\/p>\n
We made that same point when this Council met last week following reports of civilian casualties resulting from recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We reiterate it today.<\/p>\n
Children have been particularly affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UN has reported that at least 796 children have been killed in Ukriane and a further 2,835 injured since the start of Russia\u2019s war, bringing the total number of child casualties to 3,631.<\/p>\n
In Ukraine, children\u2019s homes, schools, and hospitals have been damaged and destroyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Russia has targeted the electricity infrastructure that heats their houses in winter, it has disrupted their education, and its attacks have displaced families across Ukraine and beyond.<\/p>\n
We should all strive to prevent further civilian suffering.<\/p>\n
Russia could do so immediately.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has time and again reiterated its commitment to a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
We call on Russia also to commit to a ceasefire, to engage meaningfully in peace talks, and to end its illegal war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy. We are saddened by reports of the incident on 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-664950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}