The investigation The conflict shows the paralysis of the United Nations, which has already been weakened for two decades by the questioning of the United States under George W. Bush and Donald Trump, Russia’s repeated use of its veto in the Security Council, and China’s growing influence.
This was a bad omen for the United Nations. On Thursday, April 28, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in the office of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmyhal, the day after a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, when two Russian missiles were shot down nearby. The ground floor of an apartment building, which was vacant at the time, was hit, sparking fires on this downtown street.
Afterwards, the former Portuguese prime minister said he was “shocked” by the strike, as the Ukrainian capital had not been specifically captured for two weeks after Russian troops withdrew from the city’s outskirts. However, he downplayed the symbolic aspect of the attack: “I don’t think it’s important whether the general secretary is present or not.”
But coincidence is unsettling. “It says a lot about Russia’s real attitude towards international institutions, about the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the UN,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will denounce more than two months after the start of the Russian invasion following the incident’s first visit in Ukraine by the head of the organization, a symbol of multilateralism.
The strike then, as seen from New York, is reminiscent of another Russian attack on the western city of Lviv on March 25, when United States President Joe Biden was at Rzeszów Airport in Poland, not very far , on the other side of the border where the Western arms shipped to Ukraine passed through.
The UN teams, whether those accompanying him or those staying in New York, appeared disarmed upon hearing the news, overwhelmed by such a lack of respect for the symbol but “not that surprised,” recognized a diplomat. shocked. The attack spells out the mortal danger threatening an institution deeply affected by the conflict sparked by a member state of the Security Council responsible in principle for “maintaining international peace and security”.
Resolution possible
On the night of February 24, when the Kremlin launched its offensive against Ukraine, it was time for a state of emergency at the UN headquarters in New York. And already to impotence. Barely forty minutes after the war began, diplomats followed one another in front of the media, at the doors of the council chambers, to express their indignation. At the microphone, they multiply the condemnations of Russia.
The Security Council has not experienced such turbulence for a long time. By attacking Ukraine, Russia has flagrantly violated key principles of the United Nations Charter, which protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its member states.
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