The United Nations Security Council held a minute’s silence on Friday after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of committing genocide against his country.
However, the silence was broken by Russia’s UN envoy, who insisted it was held for “all those who have died” in the conflict – including those since 2014.
“All lives are priceless,” said Russian UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya, who at the same session in New York City accused the West of using the Security Council to push its own agenda.
Kuleba proposed a minute of silence in honor of the “victims of the aggression” at Friday’s session – marking the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
But when he and other members of the assembly stood up, the Russian ambassador started tapping his microphone. As dismayed envoys watched, he urged: “We stand to honor all the victims of what happened in Ukraine, starting in 2014.”
A minute of silence proposed by Ukraine’s foreign minister was interrupted by Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya (pictured), who insisted it be held for “all those who have died” in the conflict, including those since 2014
Moscow – without evidence – has accused Kiev of committing genocide against Russian speakers in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where fighting has been taking place since 2014 between Ukrainian troops and Russian separatists.
Nebenzya’s comments appeared to be a nod to this claim, as well as to Russia’s claim that Ukraine and the West are to blame for the fighting in the region and for Putin’s February 24, 2022 invasion.
The members of the assembly were forced to sit down again to listen to Nebenzya. “All those who died. All lives are priceless,” he told the session.
More than 8,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and 13,000 injured since the country’s invasion a year ago today, according to the UN.
In addition, both sides allegedly lost tens of thousands of casualties in brutal fighting. A recent British estimate suggested that more than 200,000 soldiers have been lost to death or injury in Russia alone so far.
The scuffle came after the UN voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to demand Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Ukraine received strong support in a non-binding vote with 141 of 193 UN members in support, seven against and 32, including China and India, abstaining.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the brutal war, support for Kiev was little changed from last October, when 143 countries voted to condemn Russia’s announced annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
“Today the United Nations General Assembly has spoken very clearly,” said Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
“This vote shows that the international community is behind Ukraine.”
The vote came after two days of debate in which Kuleba urged the international community to choose “between good and evil.”
He rejected the idea that Kiev enjoyed only the support of the West – the European Union, the United States and their main allies.
“The vote refutes the argument that the South is not on Ukraine’s side because many countries representing Latin America, Africa and Asia voted in favor today,” Kuleba said. “The support is much broader and will only consolidate and solidify,” he added.
Pictured: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and other representatives hold a moment of silence at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to mark one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. However, the gesture was interrupted by the representative of Russia
Pictured: An aerial view of the city of Bakhmut (February 14), in eastern Ukraine, almost completely destroyed as Kiev’s soldiers fight to defend it from the Russian invaders
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expressed his gratitude to all “who stood up for Ukraine on the anniversary of the unprovoked Russian aggression.”
“The world understands whose side the truth is on,” he said.
However, Nebenzya insisted on Friday that the motion was introduced only to serve the West’s agenda.
“What we see today is another attempt to give certain rights to a group of the country, while you, as a representative of the golden billion, favor Ukraine just because it is part of your geopolitical project,” he said. he said.
“It seems that the problems of the rest of the world are none of your business. It seems that the unprecedented number of delegations invited today… 12 EU countries… it is clear that all these countries that have the same EU position dictated by Brussels will not add value to the discussion,” added he to it.
A day earlier, he had rejected the resolution, calling Ukraine “neo-Nazi” and accusing the West of sacrificing the country and developing countries in their desire to defeat Russia. “They are ready to plunge the whole world into the abyss of war” to maintain their own “hegemony,” Nebenzya said.
The resolution reaffirmed support for Ukraine’s “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” and rejected all Russian claims to parts of the country.
It also demanded “that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its armed forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders,” and called for a “cessation of hostilities.”
The vote showed Moscow’s continued isolation on the world stage after 12 months of war. It only received support from six other countries: Belarus, Syria, North Korea, Mali, Nicaragua and Eritrea.
Despite its limited support, Russia has used its veto power to block any binding motion against Russia in the UN Security Council.
Instead, the UN General Assembly has taken up the issue, demonstrating solid support for Kiev in successive votes. “Next year we should not gather here to celebrate the second anniversary of this senseless offensive war,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said during the debate.
“Russia can and must stop tomorrow,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. “This war waged by Russia is everyone’s business because it threatens the existence of a state, because it represents a dominant and imperialist plan and because it denies the existence of borders.”
The vote showed that India and China were not persuaded to outright condemn Moscow’s invasion, even though both have criticized Moscow’s threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict.
Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, speaks at the General Assembly’s 11th Emergency Special Session on Ukraine at UN Headquarters in New York City on Feb. 22
Ahead of the vote, Dai Bing, China’s deputy representative to the United Nations, took a neutral stance and called on both sides to cease fighting and begin peace talks.
“We support Russia and Ukraine to move towards each other and resume direct dialogue as soon as possible,” he said.
But he also articulated one of Russia’s justifications for the invasion, namely that his own security was threatened by Ukraine’s leanings towards Western Europe and NATO.
Any settlement, he said, should “due regard to … the reasonable security concerns of all countries, while duly addressing their legitimate security aspirations”.
