The British Presidency of the UN Security Council aimed to make a spectacle of a meeting convened yesterday on the situation in Ukraine, by inviting the representatives of eight NATO members, who are not members of the Council, to present statements against Russia. This, said Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy, violated the rules and traditions of the UNSC, threatened to drag out the meeting—it last 2 hours and 43 minutes—"demonstrates a lack of integrity of the Presidency and represents an attempt to exert pressure on UNSC members. There is and can be no plausible explanation why a Security Council meeting needs to turn into a get-together of NATO states.”
Rosemary DiCarlo, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, delivered a briefing that sounded as if it had been written in Brussels, or at the US State Department. “The Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine is a blatant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, she stressed, “reported the UN news summary. “The Organization remains fully committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
The NATO representatives, with the exception of Hungary, all condemned Russia and held Moscow solely responsible for its “war of aggression” and all of the crimes that allegedly flow from that. None of them endorsed peace on any terms other than those of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “peace formula.” Hungary, on the other hand, “favors peace as soon as possible, even if this does not fall ‘totally in line with mainstream positions,’” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. “It is often heard that conditions are not favorable to launch negotiations to find a diplomatic solution; however, such conditions are getting worse every day.” He stressed that the longer the war takes, the more death and devastation will occur “‘in our neighborhood,’” expressing his wish that the international community would bring more peace than weapons to that neighborhood.
Others endorsing peace on a more equitable basis than Zelensky’s formula, included Ghana, China, Mozambique, Brazil and Gabon. “Rational voices supporting the resumption of talks have become stronger and stronger. Developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America have all put forward peace proposals — though different in context, they all reflect a strong desire to resolve the crisis through political means,” said Chinese Ambassador Geng Shuang. “The Ukrainian crisis proves that the pursuit of absolute security, inciting bloc confrontation and expanding military alliance is an outdated way of thinking and can only bring turmoil to Europe and the whole world.”
