Western powers backed Ukraine on Thursday at the UN Security Council in the face of fresh threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who decided to mobilize hundreds of thousands of reservists and remind the world of his vast nuclear arsenal.
At the heart of this new phase that the conflict appears to be entering is a ministerial meeting parallel to the United Nations General Assembly, which remains dominated almost exclusively by the war in Ukraine.
In it, the US, UK and European Union (EU) countries slammed the recent Kremlin announcements and reiterated their commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken charged Putin with “pouring gasoline on the fire” on the very week when representatives from around the world are meeting at the United Nations.
According to Blinken, the international order represented by the UN is being “shaken before our eyes” and Putin must therefore not “get away with it”.
“A man chose this war, and a man is the one who can end it. Because if Russia stops fighting, the war is over, and if Ukraine stops fighting, it’s Ukraine that’s over,” said the head of US diplomacy.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stressed that this was “a war of annexation, of conquest” into which Putin now “wants to send even more young Russians, which makes peace even more unlikely”. “Mr. Putin must understand that the world is watching and that we will not give up,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Ukraine took the opportunity to send a message to Russia: “They can mobilize 300,000 or 500,000 people, but they will not win this war,” said its Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Lavrov dodged criticism
Neither this nor any other speech was heard from the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, who only appeared at the time of his speech, only to leave the room immediately afterwards.
Lavrov again justified his country’s “special military operation” with the fact that Ukraine has been in the hands of radical nationalists, Russophobes and neo-Nazis since 2014, who have crushed the rights of a large part of the population and banned the Russian language.
The Russian minister tiptoed over the conflict situation, not mentioning either Ukraine’s counteroffensive or the mobilization of reservists announced on Wednesday, but rather cracking down on Western support for Kyiv.
According to him, the United States and Europe are arming and training the Ukrainian army with the “obvious goal” of “continuing the fight for as long as possible, despite casualties and destruction, in order to wear down and weaken Russia.”
“This policy assumes the West’s direct involvement in the conflict and makes it part of the conflict,” he stressed.
China, meanwhile, maintained its neutral position and insisted on the need for negotiations to end the war.
For his part, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said his country was “concerned that the Security Council has failed to fulfill its essential role of ensuring peace and security,” arguing that “it is now up to us to put that right: it’s on.” the time for structural reforms”.
He also said Mexico saw the international community’s support for the formation of a “mediation committee” promoted by figures such as Pope Francis and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside UN Secretary-General António Guterres. although this project has already been disqualified by Ukraine, which called it a “Russian plan”.
do justice
The meeting, convened by France, aimed in particular to discuss how to guarantee justice for the crimes committed in Ukraine, which French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna felt was crucial.
“Those responsible will be identified and brought to justice. These crimes will not go unpunished,” he told reporters, stressing the importance of preventing this type of situation from happening again in the future.
Numerous countries have expressed their horror at the alleged atrocities discovered after Russian troops withdrew from areas liberated from Ukraine, for example in the city of Izium in the eastern Kharkov region, where the remains of at least 440 people have been found.
The meeting was attended by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, who announced that next week he would send a team to investigate alleged crimes in eastern Ukraine.