António Guterres speaks with the Russian ambassador, before the start of the UN Security Council. DAVID DEE DELGADO | REUTERS
As a permanent member, Moscow’s veto power blocks any attempt by this international body to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
24 feb 2023 . Updated at 10:10 p.m.
Russia’s isolation was evident at the UN Security Council meeting this Friday, one day after the General Assembly approved the resolution demanding Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine and the end of the war with votes in favor. of 141 countries, seven against – including Russia and Belarus – and 32 abstentions, including China and India.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, summarized the crimes committed in Ukraine and recalled that a permanent member of the Council, Russia, has committed “a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.” As a permanent member, the right to veto Moscow blocks any attempt by this international body to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.
when he spoke Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian foreign minister, declared that “Putin is going to lose, sooner than expected” and accused Russia of carrying out “the biggest state-supported kidnapping of children in modern history.” He wanted to close his intervention with a minute of silence for the victims “of the aggression.” The Russian ambassador, Vasili Nebenzia, repeatedly hit the microphone thus interrupting the minute of silence. Moments later Nebenzia asked him to go “for all the victims.”
For his part, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, asked members to maintain support for Ukraine and prevent us from “assuming indifference to human life.” [de Vladimir Putin] as own.”
The British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, pointed out in his speech that the necessity and usefulness of the Charter of the United Nations is in question due to the war in Ukraine. «Putin cannot, must not win in Ukraine. Because what is at stake on the battlefield is the international order itself, and that is what is at the heart of the United Nations,” Cleverly said.
According to the position defended by Russia, the current international order only protects the primacy of NATO and its allies. In this context, Russia, faced with a legal framework created by the West, would only be guilty of “violating it by not wanting to accept a Russophobic hornet’s nest upon its borders».