‘RUSSIA is outraged that its request for an extraordinary meeting has been denied,’ Vasily Nebenzya the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations said addressing the UN Security Council meeting yesterday.
The meeting was called to attempt to step up the war against Russia accusing it of ‘war crimes’ in the Ukraine. Moves were made, spearheaded by the US, to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
Russia however, has the power on the council to veto any motion put against it.
Russia had already called for a extraordinary UN Security Council meeting on Monday to address the baseless claims that Russian forces ‘committed atrocities in Bucha’ in Ukraine.
The UK currently holds the UN Security Council Presidency. Its Permanent Representative, Barbara Woodward, attempted to justify not calling Russia’s extraordinary meeting by claiming that Russia was given the option to incorporate it into this session.
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, addressing the Security Council said: ‘The war in Ukraine must stop now … the war in Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges ever to the international order and the global peace architecture founded on the United Nations Charter because of its nature, intensity and consequences.’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky then addressed the UN Security Council with accusations that Russia had committed ‘war crimes’ in Bucha, saying ‘there is not a single crime that Russia has not committed in Bucha.’
The US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, then said: ‘Based on the evidence that the US has already seen I would say that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in the Ukraine.’
She called ‘on the world to show some backbone’ and ‘stand up to Russia … suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council is something that we collectively have the right to do.’
Vasily Nebenzya addressed the claims: ‘Since the beginning of the Special Operation in Ukraine over 600,000 people have been evacuated to Russia including thousands of children. They have been saved.
‘The ungrounded accusations against Russia are not confirmed by a single eye-witness.
‘I would like to address Zelensky directly: We all remember that in 2019 when you were elected to the Ukraine.
‘As a candidate you pledged to end the war against the Donbass and protect the Russian speaking people in the Ukraine. Now you call the residents of Donetsk and Lugansk “a sub-species”.
‘You and your subordinates refused to apply the Minsk Agreement.
‘Not only are there Nazis in the Ukraine they are running the show!
‘How do we know they are there? They do not conceal it, they have Nazi tattoos, they have Nazis insignia and give Nazi salutes.
‘They are not only killing Russian soldiers, but they kill their own, they use civilians as human shields.
‘Russians have been found tortured to death with Nazi signs burned into their chests.
‘Now you have these nationalist criminals staging events in which they kill civilians to blame the Russian forces for their actions.’
Before yesterday’s meeting, Tory Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: ‘Western sanctions are pushing the Russian economy back into the Soviet era’ and demanding to step up sanctions even further.
Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out proposals for six new sanctions targeting Russia’s economy.
