Kyiv’s allies on Monday slammed Moscow for a UN Security Council meeting chaired by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov about protecting the UN Charter, which Moscow itself contravened by invading Ukraine.
“By organizing this debate Russia is trying to portray itself as a defender of the UN Charter and multilateralism. Nothing can be further from the truth. It’s cynical,” EU Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog said.
“If Russia cares about effective multilateralism, that is the first way to prove it,” said Skoog, surrounded by representatives from the 27 EU nations.
Photo: AFP
Russia holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council and organized the meeting as one of its “signature” events of its tenure.
In a note to member states laying out the premise for the meeting, Russia denounced the “unipolar world order” that took effect after the end of the Cold War.
It said that “presented a serious challenge to the efficiency and stability of the United Nations system.”
“Today the world is facing another deep-reaching systemic transformation. Namely, natural and rapid decline of unipolar world order and the emergence of a new multipolar system,” the note said.
Before the meeting, Lavrov said the UN system was “enduring a profound crisis,” and accused Western nations, particularly the US, of being responsible.
“It’s not all about Ukraine,” he told reporters. “It’s about how international relations will continue to be shaped through the establishment of a sound consensus on the basis of balance of interests, or through aggressive and volatile advancement of Washington’s hegemony.”
Sitting next to Lavrov during the meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “violation” of international law and the UN Charter.
The war “is causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people, and adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Guterres said.
He added that the world faces “unprecedented and interlocking crises” and “the multilateral system is under greater strain than at any time since the creation of the United Nations.”
“Tensions between major powers are at an historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation,” Guterres added.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield clutched the world body’s charter in her hand and stressed the importance of defending its values.
“Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbor in Ukraine and struck at the heart of the UN Charter,” she said.
Looking at Lavrov, Thomas-Greenfield made a direct plea to him to release detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich and detained former US Marine Paul Whelan.
“Using people as pawns is a strategy of weakness,” she said, urging Lavrov to look into the eyes of Whelan’s sister, who was in the gallery of the chamber, and “see her suffering.”
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