Thank you for having us here today. It's a great honour, and it's really important for us to give you the most up-to-date information regarding the war in Ukraine.
That's perhaps what I want to start with, the fact that it's a war. It hasn't stopped. It's not some sort of frozen conflict. There are various definitions flying about, especially in the western press, regarding what to call it, but it is a war, for all intents and purposes.
Throughout the war, Ukraine has announced a ceasefire 13 times. The last ceasefire was announced in March of this year. This ceasefire lasted for only 10 minutes. Almost immediately after our announcement of the ceasefire, the Russian occupation forces started shelling our positions, and not just the positions, but also the territories behind the positions—peaceful territory, so to speak,
This May, just last month, 17 of our armed forces personnel died. This is more than one person every two days of the month. I think it's a clear statistic that this is basically a war. In April, eight of our military personnel died. These are just the statistics of the last two months. Every month, we have an average of more than 10 military personnel dying. This is even without mentioning the losses that we have in the civilian population.
One of the latest examples is really horrific. There was a big outcry in Ukraine. A 15-year-old schoolgirl, Daria Kazemirova, in the small settlement of Zalizne, died when there was absolutely unprovoked shelling of the peaceful settlement. They weren't even shelling our military positions; they were shelling a settlement that was far behind the front line. She died when she was just basically walking outside—an absolutely unprovoked death of a young schoolgirl. These are the things that are happening, unfortunately, right now. She wasn't the only one who died in May. We had another child also die. We had two children who died in May due to this unprovoked shelling.
Throughout the war, we have had more than 3,000 armed forces personnel on our side who were killed, and 300 people are missing in action. In Russian and Crimean prisons there are more than 60 Ukrainians and 60 Crimean Tatars altogether, and there are tens of Ukrainians held in the occupied territories in prisons. Unfortunately, the occupation administration is saying that we have only about 20, but in reality it's more than 20.
Another problem is that throughout the war, they've refused to let the International Committee of the Red Cross visit our people who are in their prisons, so it's very hard to verify the exact numbers. It's impossible to see what sort of conditions these people are kept in.
Then you have the people who are returned when we manage to do these prisoner swaps, and they are in terrible condition. They're beaten up. They're missing teeth. They have broken bones. Many of them have stated that they have suffered from sexual violence, often group sexual violence.
As I said, the problem is that it's impossible to prevent this while they're in prison, because they don't allow any humanitarian organizations to visit these people. This is a huge problem. It shows clearly, in my view, the way that the Russian troops and the Russian occupation administration treat our prisoners.
There's another big problem. As with many conflicts, many wars, there are lots of mines being placed around the front line. Right now, we are assessing approximately 7,000 square kilometres that have been mined, and this number is growing. It appears that the Russians are trying to make it as hard as possible for this territory to go back under Ukrainian control.
Even if they are perhaps pondering somehow to retreat in the future, there are a great number of mines being placed, and they are being placed absolutely chaotically, with no maps, with no monitoring. They're just placing mines all over the place. Already 355 people have died from these mines during the war. Almost 1,500 have received quite severe injuries from these mines.
There's a UN report regarding the people who have died from mines on both sides in both military and civilian populations. That report says that 2,500 people altogether have died from mines.
Another big problem is the ecological situation. You might ask why. Ecology, of course, is very important, but this is a national defence committee. Why is the ecological problem also problematic in the security situation? It's because it has to do with flooded coal mines, which were previously used, especially one coal mine, as nuclear waste storage facilities. When Ukraine was in control of this territory, Ukraine regularly pumped water out of these mines. Regardless of whether it's used or unused, groundwater is constantly seeping into an old coal mine. When we were in control of our territory, we spent quite a lot of money and resources to pump this water out of the coal mines. The occupying forces have simply decided not to use any resources for this, but simply to forget about it. Approximately 30 coal mines are currently flooded. One of these coal mines, the Yuncom coal mine, was used to store radioactive nuclear waste. The occupying administration is refusing to allow international experts to organize pumping the water out of this mine.
This is a huge problem, and it will only increase in that it complicates any return to normality once we hopefully, eventually, get back control of our territory.
For example, the town of Horlivka is huge. Many hundreds of thousands of people live there. It is almost totally on top of old coal mines that are currently flooded. There may be various problems from this. Parts of the town could simply collapse. Then you could have flooding coming out of the mines, especially when there's waste. Even when mines weren't used for nuclear waste storage, other waste was dumped in these mines, which are now overflowing. This is a huge problem that can cause huge swaths of our territory in the Donbass region to become uninhabitable.
Apart from this, the occupying forces constantly shell critically important infrastructure. Infrastructure provides fresh water, not just for the free territories but for the occupied territories as well. They shell the infrastructure that provides the relevant services for the people under their control. This is also a constant problem. Under direct shelling, Ukrainian forces and Ukrainian workers have to repair infrastructure.
These are some of the figures I would like to tell you, but to sum up, I would like to stress that it is very important for us that everyone in the west realizes that this war hasn't stopped, that this conflict hasn't somehow decreased. Even if you look at the number of deaths, it's like a graph with up and down movement, but on average the number of deaths is always present. You can't say, for example, that this year there's a marked de-escalation as compared to last year. These deaths are continuing. These deaths are unprovoked.
Basically, they're just using our troops as target practice. This is not a cynical thing to say; it is a truthful thing to say. The Russians are using our troops as target practice for their cadets, for their young officers, which they bring from Russia.
It's not just artillery, but snipers. This is an important point, because over the last couple of months we had a marked escalation in sniper deaths. It's not just unprovoked shelling, but constant sniper fire on our positions, also unprovoked.
They're using our troops for target practice, and not just our troops, but our civilian population as well. Obviously, this is a war.
Of course, Canada is a great friend of ours. Canada is helping us as much as possible, and probably the most among all of our allies.
We would like to stress once again that it is important for your MPs, your constituents, and your voters to realize that there is a war going on. I regularly look at the western press. I read the BBC and watch CNN every day. Unfortunately, one has to state that the level of coverage is almost non-existent. It's decreasing with every day, and only sometimes is there some sort of coverage that appears. I think it's really important for everyone in the west to understand that there is a war going on.
I have one last thing before I go back to questions or to maybe elaborate some more. I know it's a bit of a politically contentious issue perhaps in your Parliament, but it's very important for us to be able to get as many lethal weapons as possible. Our own weapon systems are in many ways outdated. Even if they're not outdated, the Russians know everything there is to know about them. It was the same arms industry that supplied the former Soviet Union. It is very important for us to be able to get as many lethal weapons as possible from the west, and not just small arms. I know that now there is the ability to get small arms from Canada, but also anti-tank weaponry. It's important for us to get as much as possible of this weaponry from the west.
This is perhaps concerning the fact that it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to increase your sanctions against Russia in the near future because of political and other reasons. This is the second most important thing, after sanctions—in my personal view, maybe the most important thing. Sanctions are very important; we thank you for your sanctions. They have shown that they can stop Russia from going forward, but they can't stop Russia from shelling every day. Sanctions aren't really a strategic deterrent. For example, if there is a decision in the Kremlin for some reason or other to go forward—often they make decisions irrationally—I don't think sanctions will really stop them. Serious weaponry will likely stop them, or at least will make them think about it.
I say to every member of Parliament here present: please try to do your utmost for us to be able to get Canadian lethal weapons to help us.
That's it for me. If you have any questions....
