UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s international minister clashed with the USA and Ukraine’s supporters at a U.N. assembly Monday the place Moscow dominated out any peace plan backed by Kyiv and the West, and China warned that additional international chaos might affect the slowing international financial system.
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s high diplomat, claimed that Ukrainian forces have been “a whole failure” on the battlefield and are “incapable” of defeating or weakening Russia.
He informed the U.N. Safety Council that Moscow is all the time prepared to barter peace, however he claimed peace plans offered by Ukraine and its Western “masters” are “solely used as cowl to proceed warfare and proceed getting cash from Western taxpayers.”
“All of those formulation are a street to nowhere, and the earlier Washington, London, Paris and Brussels understand this the higher for Ukraine and the West,” he mentioned, warning that their “campaign towards Russia has already created new, clear, reputational and existential dangers.”
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wooden dismissed Lavrov’s claims as “simply blatant disinformation” and countered that it was Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine that began the warfare, and it’s President Vladimir Putin ‘s “single-minded pursuit of the obliteration of Ukraine and subjugation of its individuals that’s prolonging it.”
“Russia’s imperialist designs are apparent,” and “for Russia, something apart from capitulation — whole capitulation by Ukraine is the one answer, and that is simply not acceptable to the worldwide neighborhood,” Wooden mentioned. stressing that the warfare might finish tomorrow if Moscow withdrew a whole bunch of hundreds of troops in Ukraine’s internationally acknowledged territory.
Russia known as the council assembly to once more sharply criticize Western navy support to Ukraine. Simply earlier than it began, diplomats from greater than 40 international locations surrounded Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya who learn a joint assertion underscoring Russia’s “hypocrisy” in criticizing lawful arms transfers to assist Ukraine defend itself.
Ukraine’s supporters known as Monday’s assembly one other Russian try “to distract from its warfare of aggression,” they usually condemned navy assist to Moscow — drones from Iran and ballistic missiles from North Korea — in violation of U.N. sanctions, in addition to navy tools from Belarus.
The council heard many requires stepped up peace efforts, and there was rising concern from Russia’s ally, China, in regards to the growing risk to international safety from the continuing warfare in Ukraine on the identical time that Israel and Hamas are at war in Gaza following the militant group’s shock assaults in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“We should spare no effort to stem the spillover of the (Ukraine) disaster at a time when the Palestinian-Israeli battle drags on, and a few hotspot points are on the danger of flaring up,” China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun mentioned. “The world can’t afford to see additional spreading of geopolitical clashes on the identical time the worldwide financial system is slowing down.”
Zhang informed the council “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all international locations should be revered,” which Ukraine has insisted on and which Russia has violated by annexing 4 Ukrainian areas. However the Chinese language ambassador criticized Ukraine for looking for to affix NATO and warned Kyiv, with out naming Russia, that this may deepen Moscow’s safety considerations.
Zhang urged the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations as quickly as doable. He didn’t point out the peace plan China issued in February 2023 that known as for a ceasefire, negotiations and an finish to sanctions towards Russia however he did concentrate on the warfare’s disruption to the world financial system.
“The detrimental impacts of the Ukraine disaster and the Palestinian-Israeli battle have added snow to the icy chilly international financial system,” Zhang mentioned. “International locations with important affect ought to … chorus from politicizing, instrumentalizing or weaponizing the world financial system, and will as an alternative work collectively to take care of international meals, vitality and monetary safety in addition to the steadiness and clean functioning of commercial and provide chains.”
China was the third speaker from the 15-member council and Lavrov left instantly after Zhang spoke, giving his seat to a deputy. Lavrov did not hear Wooden however he did hear Malta’s U.N. Ambassador Vanessa Frazier who echoed the U.S. name for Russia to withdraw its forces and accused Moscow of violating its obligation to take care of worldwide peace and safety, the Safety Council’s main mission.
“Right this moment’s assembly is one more try and justify the unjustifiable and search to supply a story the place the sufferer is the aggressor and the aggressor the sufferer,” Frazier mentioned, decrying the killing of 10,200 Ukrainian civilians, together with 575 kids, and accidents to greater than 19,300 others in Russian attacks for the reason that warfare started, in accordance with the U.N. human rights workplace.
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