Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday and told them that “humankind no longer pins its hopes on the the U.N. when it comes to the defense of the sovereign borders of nations.”
“Ukrainian soldiers now are doing at the expense of their blood what the U.N. Security Council should be doing with its votes,” Zelenskyy said. “They’re stopping Russia and upholding the principles of the U.N. charter.”
There have been “574 days of pain, losses and struggle,” Zelenskyy said, with tens of thousands of Ukrainians killed and millions more turned into refugees.
Before Zelenskyy spoke, António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, addressed assembled leaders. He condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “clear violation of the United Nations charter and international law.” The war, he said, has “traumatized a generation of children, torn families and communities apart and turned vast areas of farmlands into deadly minefields.” Some 18 million people, nearly half of Ukraine’s population, need humanitarian assistance and more than 6 million have fled the country, he said. Guterres emphasized that the U.N. is fully committed to the “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” of Ukraine, and said there is “never an alternative to dialogue, diplomacy and a just peace.”
Zelenskyy calls for Security Council changes
Veto power in the hands of the aggressor has pushed the United Nations into gridlock, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader accused Russia of “mass atrocities” of human rights and said action should be taken to prevent Moscow from using its veto at the Security Council. “It is impossible to stop the war because all efforts are vetoed by the aggressor or those who condone the aggressor,” he said. Zelenskyy proposed giving the larger body of the United Nations the ability to override a veto. Currently, only five countries have veto power: Russia, Britain, China, France and the United States.
When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the council, he backed up Zelenskyy’s claim about the ineffectiveness of the Security Council. He said ”The Security Council is no longer the guarantor of international security and has become a battleground where the political strategies of five countries clash.” According to the Turkish media, he also repeated his slogan for U.N. reform: “The world is bigger than five.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the council that Russia has “shredded the major tenets of the U.N. charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international humanitarian law — and flouted one Security Council resolution after another.” He also said that “Russia is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on an almost daily basis.”
Zelenskyy called on world governments to back Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan, a plan which Russia has rejected. Blinken pointed out that while Zelenskyy has offered that 10-point peace plan, Putin has offered nothing.
“We must send a clear message, not only to Russia but to all would-be aggressors, that we will stand up — not stand by — when the rules that we all agreed to are being challenged; not only to prevent conflict, instability and suffering, but to lay the foundation for all that we can do to improve people’s lives in times of peace,” said Blinken.
Russia’s response
Russia attempted to prevent Zelenskyy from speaking by objecting repeatedly to him speaking first before official members of the council. The meeting chair, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, told Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the U.N., that, “Coming from you, this lecture of violating rules ... is quite impressive.” He added: “There is a solution for this. ... You stop the war and President Zelenskyy will not take the floor.”
After Zelenskyy had left for Washington, D.C., Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived to give his speech. He defended Russia’s use of its veto power as a “legitimate tool,” claimed the West had orchestrated a coup in Ukraine in 2014 to install a pro-Western “puppet” president and blamed the West for “shaking global stability.”
What’s next?
Zelenskyy will be in Washington to meet with President Joe Biden and leadership from both houses to rally support for more military and humanitarian aid. House Republicans have refused to pass any funding bills, including an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Holly Richardson is the editor of Utah Policy