Status: 04/24/2023 7:44 p.m
Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov has accused the West of hegemonic plans and has once again defended his country’s invasion of Ukraine. This met with a lot of opposition and outrage in the UN Security Council.
As scheduled, Russia is chairing the most important UN body this month. And the country took today’s International Day of Multilateralism as an opportunity to put the issue on the Security Council’s agenda. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to New York for this purpose. He used the performance to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine: NATO had threatened Russia’s security in the region for years:
It’s about how international relations will be shaped in the future: by building a solid consensus based on trade-offs, or by aggressively and erratically pushing Washington’s supremacy. We cannot look at the Ukraine question in isolation from the geopolitical context.
Lavrov accused the West of wanting to replace the UN Charter as the basis of the international order with its own rules – against the will of the rest of the world.
Guterres: Tensions at historic highs
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again warned that the multilateral system was under more pressure than at any time since the United Nations was founded:
“The tensions between the great powers are at an historic high. Also the risk that the conflict could escalate due to accidents or misjudgments.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law is causing massive suffering and devastation and amplifying the global economic dislocation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
accusation of hypocrisy
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of hypocrisy. With the invasion of its neighbor Ukraine, Moscow hit the UN charter to the heart – and with it all common values: “This illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary war directly contradicts our most widespread principles that a war of aggression and territorial conquests are never acceptable.”
As we sit together here in New York, this aggression continues – meanwhile, Russian forces continue to kill and injure civilians. Thomas-Greenfield went on to complain: “As we sit here, Russian forces are destroying Ukraine’s critical infrastructure.”
Skoog: United Nations principles violated
Before the Security Council meeting, the UN ambassador of the European Union, Olof Skoog, spoke on behalf of all 27 member states. Everyone knows that Russia is violating the basic rules of the United Nations with the war: “By organizing the debate, Russia is trying to present itself as a defender of the UN Charter and multilateralism.” Nothing is further from the truth. “That’s cynical,” Skoog said.
Discussion about future of grain agreement
On the fringes of the visit, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov wants to meet UN Secretary-General Guterres for talks. The main focus should be on the future of the grain agreement.
Russia had recently repeatedly threatened to let the agreement on the safe export of grain from Ukraine expire on May 18.
Lavrov defends invasion of Ukraine before UN Security Council
Peter Mücke, ARD New York, April 24, 2023 7:06 p.m