Extract from ABC News
It was to be Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy's first in-person appearance at a UN Security Council meeting on Moscow's invasion of his country, and Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia objected to him taking the floor before the 15 council members.
Key points:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confronted Russia directly at the meeting
- Mr Zelenskyy called on the United Nations to strip Russia of its Security Council veto power
- Mr Zelenskyy last encountered a Russian official in 2019
Mr Zelenskyy had been in the same room, but hardly eye to eye, with a Russian diplomat during the Ukrainian leader's speech in the vast hall of the UN General Assembly, which this week is holding its annual meeting of top-level leaders.
Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky later said, wryly, that he'd been focusing on his phone and “didn't notice” Mr Zelenskyy's address.
Before that, Mr Zelenskyy last encountered a Russian official at a 2019 meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zelenskyy confronted Russia directly at the meeting, denouncing the Kremlin's invasion of his country as "criminal" and urging that Moscow be stripped of its UN veto power.
"Most of the world recognises the truth about this war," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"It is a criminal and unprovoked aggression by Russia against our nation aimed at seizing Ukraine's territory and resources."
Mr Zelenskyy called on the United Nations to strip Russia of its Security Council veto power, describing it as a vital reform that would simultaneously promote greater representation at the UN for the developing world — where support for Ukraine has been lukewarm.
"Veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the UN into a deadlock," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"It is impossible to stop the war because all efforts are vetoed by the aggressor or those who condone the aggressor," he said.
Mr Zelenskyy repeated the Ukrainian stance that the veto power belonged to the former Soviet Union — one of the victors of World War II after which the United Nations was created — and not to President Vladimir Putin's Russia.
"Unfortunately, this seat in the Security Council, which Russia occupies illegally through backstage manipulations following the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been taken by liars whose job it is to whitewash the aggression and the genocide," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Taking away Russia's veto power would be exceedingly difficult.
There is, however, precedent: the UN General Assembly in 1971 stripped Taiwan of the veto power it held as the representative of China, handing it instead to the communist government of the mainland.
Tensions from the start
Tensions erupted even before Mr Zelenskyy spoke, with the Russian side questioning the decision by current Security Council President Albania, represented by Prime Minister Edi Rama, to allow the Ukrainian to go first.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, repeatedly asking to speak, told Mr Rama that letting Mr Zelenskyy appear first risked "undermining the authority of the Security Council" and turning it into "a one-man stand-up show".
Mr Rama responded calmly but with growing annoyance, telling the Russian envoy, "There is a solution here — you stop the war, and President Zelenskyy will not take the floor."
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke before Mr Zelenskyy and also strongly criticised Russia.
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in clear violation of the United Nations Charter and international law, is aggravating geopolitical tensions and divisions, threatening regional stability, increasing the nuclear threat and creating deep fissures in our increasingly multipolar world," Mr Guterres said.
Albania allowed a list of 63 speakers for the session.
Lavrov defends Russia veto power
Others also scheduled to attend included Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Mr Lavrov, showing up at the Security Council after Mr Zelenskyy left, scoffed at the idea of ending Russia's veto and described it as a way to check Western power.
"The use of the veto is an absolutely legitimate tool laid out in the (UN) charter," Mr Lavrov said.
Mr Lavrov denounced Mr Zelenskyy, who is seeking to win back all territory occupied by Russia, for not negotiating and sought intervention by Mr Antony Blinken — who looked at Mr Lavrov as he spoke.
Addressing Mr Blinken, Mr Lavrov said, "I don't think it would be very difficult to give a command for Zelenskyy to lift the decree" against negotiations.
Mr Blinken, who had met Mr Lavrov before the war to warn against an invasion, has largely avoided meeting him since the war and no talks were planned in New York.
In his own remarks as Mr Lavrov entered the room, Mr Blinken recalled a recent visit to Ukraine where he visited a town where bodies of Ukrainian civilians were stacked among the living in a school basement.
"Russia is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine on an almost daily basis," Mr Blinken said.
Mr Putin, who rarely travels to the United Nations, did not come this year.
He has skipped other high-profile diplomatic gatherings as Western nations seek to isolate him and as he faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
Russia 'weaponising' food, energy
Addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Russia's deportations of Ukrainian children — which triggered the warrant for Putin — constituted "genocide".
Mr Zelenskyy cast support for Ukraine as in the world's interest, saying that Russia was "weaponising" both food and energy, including by halting a UN-backed arrangement that let Ukraine ship grain safely through the Black Sea.
"For the first time in modern history, we have the chance to end the aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked," Mr Zelenskyy said in a speech met with applause led by Western nations but many empty seats elsewhere.
Some developing nations have been critical of the attention granted to Ukraine, which has received some $US43 billion ($66 billion) in military aid from the United States alone.
"It is a grave indictment of this international community that we can spend so much on war, but we cannot support action that needs to be taken to meet the most basic needs of billions of people," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday.
Wires
No comments:
Post a Comment