Even holding a minute of silence for Ukrainian victims of the war proved to hard for the United Nations Security Council, which in the presence US Secretary of State Antony Blinken descended into objections about the order of speakers.
(Bloomberg) — Even holding a minute of silence for Ukrainian victims of the war proved to hard for the United Nations Security Council, which in the presence US Secretary of State Antony Blinken descended into objections about the order of speakers.
“You are turning the council into your own instrument,” Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said of the US and its allies moments into a meeting Friday that was intended to draw new condemnation of President Vladimir Putin a year after his forces invaded Ukraine. Nebenzya objected to a decision to let Ukraine’s foreign minister deliver a speech before the 15 members of the Security Council did so.
It was only the latest reminder of how the world’s most powerful diplomatic body has been unable to fulfill its mandate of maintaining global peace and security as Russia, one of its five veto-wielding permanent members, wages war on its neighbor.
The spats and slights didn’t stop there: Nebenzya scrolled through his mobile phone during a speech by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Then he objected when Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked everyone in the Security Council chamber to observe a minute of silence in recognition of the Ukrainian victims of Russia’s aggression.
Nebenzya, wagging a pencil to get the attention of the ambassador of Malta, who was running the meeting, said he would rise to recognize all those killed on both sides since 2014, not just the current conflict. After pausing awkwardly as if to let Nebenza’s proposal lapse, the other ambassadors rose to their feet.
Once the meeting got underway, Blinken warned countries against accepting what he called false calls for a cease-fire or a peace plan — such as one offered by China.
“For peace to be durable it must ensure that Russia can’t simply rest, rearm and relaunch the war in a few months or a few years,” Blinken said. A peace that legitimizes Russia’s seizure of land will “send a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they can invade countries and get away with it.”
Ahead of the meeting, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell disputed the notion that China has offered a peace plan, saying Beijing produced a position paper that contains “interesting considerations” but lacks any way to make it reality.
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