The U.S. State Department called out continued Russian aggression in Ukraine on Tuesday, mentioning how civilians have been killed due to Russia's invasion.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert mentioned the continuing fighting in Ukraine during a press briefing on Tuesday.
"I'd like to draw your attention to Russia's ongoing aggression in Ukraine," Nauert told reporters. "This has been one of the most violent weeks of the year: Five Ukrainian soldiers are now dead and 23 have been wounded."
"The fighting has not spared civilians either. A 13-year-old boy and his father were killed in a Ukrainian government-controlled territory when artillery shells struck their home," Nauert said. "A pipe carrying chlorine gas at the Donetsk Water Filtration Station was struck by artillery shells. The Kremlin controls the violence in Eastern Ukraine and could bring this violence to an end tomorrow if the Kremlin wanted to do that."
Nauert also said that Russia justifies its presence in Ukraine as trying to protect Russian-speaking people, but now Eastern Ukraine is now the most dangerous place for Russian-speaking people to be.
"Russian and Ukrainian soldiers and civilians continue to die in a conflict manufactured by the Russian government with forces it arms, equips, leads, and trains and while Russia perpetuates the violence in Eastern Ukraine by pouring money, soldiers and resources into the region, the Russian economy continues to stagnate," Nauert said. "We call on Russia to end its aggression in Ukraine and live up to its commitments when it signed the Minsk Agreements."