The United Nations Security Council observed a minute’s silence on Friday after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of genocide against his country.
However, the silence was broken by Russia’s UN envoy, who insisted it was kept for “all those who died in the conflict” – including those since 2014.
“All lives are priceless,” said Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya, who in the same session in New York City accused the West of using the Security Council to advance its own agenda.
Kuleba proposed a minute’s silence to honor the “victims of aggression” during Friday’s session – marking the one-year anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
But as he and other members of the assembly stood, the Russian ambassador began tapping his microphone. As dismayed envoys looked on, he then insisted: “We stand up to honor the memory of all the victims of the events in Ukraine that began in 2014.”
A minute’s silence proposed by Ukraine’s foreign minister was interrupted by Russia’s UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya (pictured), who insisted it should apply to “all those who have died in the conflict”, including those since 2014
Moscow has accused Kyiv – without evidence – of committing genocide against Russian speakers in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, which has been the scene of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian separatists since 2014.
Nebenzya’s comments appeared to be a nod to this claim, as did Russia’s insistence 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 had to sit down again to listen to Nebenzya. ‘All who perished. All lives are priceless,” he told the session.
According to the United Nations, more than 8,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and 13,000 injured in the country since the invasion began a year ago today.
In addition, both sides are said to have lost tens of thousands of casualties in brutal fighting. A recent British estimate assumes that in Russia alone more than 200,000 soldiers have been lost to either death or injury.
The uproar came after the United Nations voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to demand Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Ukraine received strong support in a non-binding vote in which 141 of the 193 UN members agreed, seven opposed and 32, including China and India, abstained.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the brutal war, support for Kiev was little different from last October, when 143 countries voted to condemn Russia’s declared annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
“Today the United Nations General Assembly spoke very clearly,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
“This vote shows that the international community stands behind Ukraine.”
The vote came after a two-day debate in which Kuleba urged the international community to “choose between good and evil.”
He dismissed the idea that Kiev enjoys support only from the West – the European Union, the United States and their key allies.
“The vote refutes the argument that the Global South is not on Ukraine’s side because many countries representing Latin America, Africa and Asia voted for it today,” Kuleba said. “The support is much broader and will only continue to be consolidated and solidified,” he added.
Pictured: Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and other officials stand for a minute’s silence during a United Nations Security Council meeting to mark the year-long Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the gesture was interrupted by Russia’s representative
Pictured: An aerial view of the city of Bakhmut (February 14) in eastern Ukraine, which was almost completely destroyed as Kiev’s soldiers fought to defend it from Russian invaders
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, thanked all those “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, on Friday, Nebenzya insisted that the request was made only to serve the West’s agenda.
“What we are seeing today is yet another attempt to give certain rights to a group of the country, while you, as the representative of the golden billion, give preference to Ukraine simply because it is part of your geopolitical project,” he said.
“It turns out you don’t seem to care about the problems of the rest of the world. It seems that the unprecedented number of delegations invited today…12 EU countries…it is clear that all these countries, representing the same EU position dictated by Brussels, will not bring any added value to the discussion,” he added.
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,” said Nebenzya.
The resolution reiterated support for Ukraine’s “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” and dismissed all Russian claims to parts of the country.
She also demanded “that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of 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 was supported by only six other nations: Belarus, Syria, North Korea, Mali, Nicaragua and Eritrea.
Despite its limited support, Russia has used its veto power to block any binding motions against it in the UN Security Council.
Instead, the UN General Assembly has taken up the issue, showing solid support for Kyiv in successive votes. “Next year we should not be meeting here to mark the second anniversary of this senseless war of aggression,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said during the debate.
“Russia can and must stop tomorrow,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. “This war that Russia is waging concerns everyone because it threatens the existence of a state, because it represents a domineering and imperialist plan and because it denies the existence of borders.”
The vote showed India and China could not be persuaded to directly condemn the invasion of Moscow, although 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 UN headquarters in New York City February 22 during the General Assembly’s eleventh emergency special session on Ukraine
Before the vote, Dai Bing, China’s deputy representative to the United Nations, took a neutral stance, urging both sides to stop fighting and start 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 voiced one of Russia’s justifications for the invasion, that its own security was threatened by Ukraine’s affinity with Western Europe and NATO.
Any agreement, he said, should “take due account of all countries’ reasonable security concerns, thereby giving due consideration to their legitimate security aspirations.”