Russia believes it is wholly unacceptable to try to justify the death of women due to the indiscriminate use of force through identifying them as so-called ‘collateral damage’ in conflict, according to Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky.

According to Russian state media organ TASS, Polyansky told a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, "Of serious concern are cases of the deaths and injuries of women, including as a result of indiscriminate or excessive use of force."

Polyansky said that Russia considers it "inadmissible to turn a blind eye to such crimes or to justify them by the inevitability of the so-called collateral losses."
The Russian diplomat added that “Such crimes must be investigated and those responsible must be punished."

None of the tens of thousands of Syrian, Chechen, Ukrainian and other women injured, maimed and traumatised by Russia’s indiscriminate bombardment of civilians or by its discriminate targeting of civilians in locations including hospitals and refugee camps, or of the children and other family members of the thousands of women killed in the same bombardment, were consulted for comment by TASS.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has never admitted to killing women and children, though it routinely boasts of “testing” weapons in Syria, recently announcing it’s “tested” over 320 weapons since the start of its direct military involvement in support of the Assad regime in 2015. In regard to Russian forces’ routine indiscriminate bombardment of civilian locations and targeted bombing of civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools, homes and refugee camps with no military presence, the Kremlin insists that all casualties killed by its air and ground forces are “terrorists” or “collateral” killed during its pursuit of terrorists.
Meanwhile, the ministry has awarded medals to pilots who've killed large numbers of civilians in Syria, including women.

Photo: Survivor of Russian airstrikes in Aleppo in which women and children were killed, Jan 1, 2022