Russia says US intelligence is helping Ukraine 'cover the tracks' of its attack on Kakhovka dam

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the US is helping Ukraine to "cover the tracks" of its attack on the Kakhovka dam.

Speaking at a press briefing in Saint Petersburg, Zakharova criticized Ukrainian authorities for their "impolite" response to a call by Türkiye for an international expert commission to investigate the explosion that destroyed the dam.

She pointed out that instead, Kyiv decided to "use the services" of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which she described as "discredited and sullied."

Zakharova noted that a commission established by the ICC for this purpose was "transported" to the Kherson region personally by the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns.

"Now that is 'justice' when the American intelligence services transport commissions of so-called 'international legal mechanism' to a place of incident. Is this a new international structure where the director of the American intelligence serves as a prosecutor?" she said.

According to Zakharova, the goal is "understandable" -- "to clean up tracks of crimes of Ukraine's armed forces and create an illusion of Russia's guilt."

"According to the law of the genre, after that, the Russian officials will be declared 'guilty,' pseudo 'arrest' warrants will be issued again, and so on. They have repeatedly worked out all these scenarios over the years," she said.

- Russia criticizes Ukraine for "illegal trade of human organs"

Zakharova said that the business of "black traders of human organs" thrives in Ukraine due to the heavy losses suffered by Ukraine's armed forces and amendments introduced by the authorities to legislation.

"After relevant surgical procedures, the bodies are burned. Relatives are informed that the servicemen are simply missing. These terrible manipulations are impossible without the permission of the Kyiv regime at the highest level, because they are formalized by law," she said.

She said Ukraine's parliament cancelled the necessity to get notarized permission from a person for using his or her organs for transplantation after death.

The lawmakers also "significantly" facilitated the procedure of taking organs from people who died without granting permission for using parts of their bodies and authorized private clinics to carry out such procedures.

Operations for removing human organs were also relieved of taxes, she said.

Commenting on reports on the possibility of an "Israeli model" of Ukraine's cooperation with NATO without formal accession, she said it would not help turn the situation toward the path of a peace settlement.

- Process against Trump 'manifestation of liberal dictatorship'

Commenting on a criminal case against former US President Donald Trump, Zakharova said it is a manifestation of "liberal dictatorship."

She said another crisis provoked by "liberal dictatorship" can be seen in the European Union, where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is accused of corruption.

Zakharova noted that the West is fighting against corruption beyond its borders while it turns out that one of the EU’s top officials is taking part in corruption schemes.

"In the center of this liberal nest, a high-ranking person who determines the policy of the EU on the European continent, Ursula von der Leyen, is accused...through legal mechanisms (of taking part) in a colossal corruption scheme, namely the purchase of vaccines from one manufacturer, mainly from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, for an astronomical sum (of money)," she said.

- US urged to comment on reports

Commenting on reports claiming that Washington is forcing the Armenian representatives of Karabakh to agree in the near future to a meeting with the Azerbaijani side in a "third country" with the participation of a "US coordinator," Zakharova said she is "shocked" by such information.

She urged the US to comment on the situation, noting that mediator functions suggest efforts on harmonizing positions, seeking common ground.

"This is the first time I have seen information in recent history that a party claiming to be a mediator threatens the use of force to implement its mediation role -- force by threats, blackmail to sit down at the negotiating table," she said.

- Use of nuclear weapons

Zakharova stressed that Russia's hypothetical use of nuclear weapons is limited by "extraordinary circumstances" and is only possible for defensive purposes.

"The Russian policy in the field of nuclear deterrence is purely defensive in nature, and the hypothetical use of nuclear weapons is clearly limited to extraordinary circumstances within the framework of purely defensive purposes," she said.

Moscow is committed to the principle of inadmissibility of a nuclear war, in which there can be no winner, she emphasized.

She also said that Russia may return to the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty if Washington shows political will and takes steps to reduce tensions and creates conditions for the resumption of the full functioning of the agreement.