“The military special operation was inevitable.”
(Photo: IMAGO/SNA)
new York It was a tribunal. A tribunal against Russian President Vladimir Putin, his imperialist war of aggression in Ukraine, the atrocious crimes of his troops and his nuclear threats. The UN Security Council served as the setting. The potentially most powerful UN body once again dealt with the Russian attack and the lack of prosecution of the perpetrators in New York on Thursday. A verdict, even sanctions, were not forthcoming.
As a permanent member of the Council, Russia can block all important decisions of the UN body. However, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could not be satisfied. Rather, Putin’s chief international propagandist experienced how isolated his country is in the United Nations. In the first hours of public debate, country after country blamed the Russians and bemoaned their actions: from Albania to Mexico, from France to Great Britain, from Norway to Kenya.
China and India, which have close ties to Russia, also showed no sympathy for Putin’s campaign. They called for an end to the violence. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi even warned: “The principles of the UN charter must be followed.” Lavrov may not have liked this statement – because the Russians have drastically violated this charter.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, expressed the tragedy and at the same time the hope of his oppressed compatriots in one sentence: Russia will never be able to “kill us all”. And Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said to the leadership of Russia what everyone probably thought: “This is a war that you will not win. Stop the war.”
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres set the tone right at the start of the session. “The past seven months have brought untold suffering and devastation,” he said, referring to the bloody Russian aggression that began in February. The reports from Ukraine are a “catalogue” of atrocities: summary executions, sexual violence, torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment of civilians and prisoners of war.
“This is a war that will not be won. Stop the war.”
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
Guterres recalled the “thousands of Ukrainian civilians, including hundreds of children” who were killed and injured, mostly by Russian shelling of urban areas. “The perpetrators must be held accountable in fair and independent trials,” demanded the Secretary-General.
Lavrov responded with a crude justification speech
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave details of the torture of a Ukrainian by Russian troops: the man had to endure electric shocks and beatings. Blinken denounced the Kremlin’s strategy of annexing territories via mock referendums as “diabolical”.
As expected, the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov rejected all accusations – and he once again escalated into a crude justification speech for the “military special operation”. The “regime” in Kyiv, led by “neo-Nazis” and supported by the West, is killing and oppressing the Russian-speaking population in the Donbass region. Lavrov’s cynical conclusion: “The military special operation was inevitable.”