Aggressive war against Ukraine: Moscow’s propaganda push in the Security Council

For days, the UN Security Council dealt with only one thing: the well-known Kremlin allegations against Ukraine. The reactions are now cynical – but concerns are growing.

The Russians kept the promise made by Moscow’s deputy UN ambassador Dimitri Polyansky: “We will keep the Security Council busy this week.”

And they did. Three days long. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebensya, made a well-known accusation. He replayed the script of a meeting in March: Biological laboratories in Ukraine would be used for dangerous experiments – with pathogens of anthrax, cholera and other deadly diseases. The Pentagon supports Kyiv in the development of biological weapons – together with US companies, he said. The pathogens would be spread by birds and bats.

“And now mosquitoes too” – US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield reacted cynically: Birds do not respect national borders. “The Russian allegations are absurd in many respects. Such stuffed animals would be just as dangerous for Ukraine and Europe as for any other country.”

“Create Rifts in the Alliance”

The latest Russian accusation has generated just as much skepticism: Ukraine is working on a “dirty” — that is, radioactively contaminated — bomb. She wants to ignite it on her own soil in order to discredit Russia. The Russians themselves did not even believe that they could convince the Security Council of this, said Thomas Graham, Russia expert at the think tank Council on Foreign Relations. Moscow wants to create a threat scenario to distract from its own military defeats:

Patterns from the Syrian War

With its propaganda push in the Security Council, the Kremlin is counting on its narrative being widely disseminated via Russian and Chinese social media, says the UN expert at the Crisis Group think tank, Richard Gowan: “However, there is also the small possibility that this only becomes the prelude to a much larger operation – that Russia itself wants to use a ‘dirty bomb’.”

There is already a pattern for this from the Syrian war. There, Russia and the Assad regime had warned against alleged chemical weapons used by the rebels – only to then use the appropriate weapons themselves.

Moscow could also hold up a mirror to the US, say some diplomats on the fringes of the Security Council. You recall the false statement that Iraq produces weapons of mass destruction. In March 2003, the USA and its allies used this accusation as a pretext for invading Iraq.

The difference, says Gowan, is that US officials actually believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction: “We don’t know if the Russians themselves believe what they’re spreading – or if they’re just telling stories to make Ukraine look bad allow.”

At a very dangerous point

Either way – the conflict has reached a very dangerous point, says Graham. It is important that the United Nations counters such allegations with a strong response. UN experts could at least investigate some of the allegations and reveal facts, says the former Russia representative in the National Security Council under US President George W. Bush. “We are trying to discreetly and publicly signal to the Russians that any use of nuclear or chemical weapons would have catastrophic consequences.”

UN Ambassador Nebensia has already stated that Russia will reserve the right to take further steps if the Security Council does not respond appropriately to the allegations.