By John J. Metzler
John Metzler
In a powerful vote of confidence for Ukraine's sovereignty and continuing independence, both the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly met to show strong political support for the embattled country two years after the 2022 Russian invasion.
Speaking before the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "Two years on, and a decade since Russia's attempted illegal annexation of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea … the war in Ukraine remains an open wound at the heart of Europe."
He emphasized poignantly, "It is high time for peace, a just peace."
Addressing a packed and tense meeting of the fifteen-member council, Guterres lamented, "Our world is at a chaotic moment." He voiced deep concern over the danger of the conflict escalating and expanding "is very real."
"No one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people," French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourné said.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron intoned that two years since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign U.N. member, "My question to Putin is simple. Why? ... How many ridiculous explanations have we now had for the invasion?" Cameron added, "Mr. Putin believes he can take territories, redraw borders, exercise force to build his empire."
Echoing Churchillian sentiments, David Cameron continued, "We must not falter. We must stand firm."
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield followed with a stinging rebuke of Russia.
"Today, despite President Putin's best efforts, the world continues to bear witness to Russian brutality, Russian hypocrisy and Russian cruelty." She said the "senseless war" has worsened global food insecurity, impacted global energy, caused incalculable damage to the environment and undermined the global non-proliferation regime.
Thomas-Greenfield added bluntly, "Let us be exceedingly clear here. If Russia puts down its weapons today, the war will end. If Ukraine puts down its weapons, Ukraine would be over."
Russian Ambassador to U.N. Vassily Nebenzia countered rhetorically, saying, "In this proxy war … Ukraine is losing." Meanwhile, he claimed, the European Union has become a "satellite of the U.S."
Earlier, in a highly unusual move at the start of the meeting, the Russian ambassador interjected a point of order claiming "the list of speakers is crowded with non-members of the council calling themselves the foreign ministers of European Union countries. However, in that bloc, with rare exceptions, there are no independent national foreign policies." Accordingly, Moscow's envoy claimed baselessly, "there are no foreign ministers, just officials who pretend to be such. The bloc's entire foreign policy is in the hands of Brussels, which in turn is in the hands of Washington."
But it was the voice of Free Ukraine that rose above the political fracas. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, "Russia's name is synonymous with aggression, war crimes and barbarism." Kuleba went on to say that the Russian Federation is occupying the place of the Soviet Union, which no longer exists and that the legal transfer of its Council seat never occurred.
He added, "This is an example of how a small fraud led to a global catastrophe." He said, "We continue to insist that Russia has no legal right to be present at this table, and the future reform should correct this historic mistake that led to deadly consequences."
Thus far, the dire cost of conflict is many thousands killed on all sides, over six million Ukrainian refugees and four million Ukrainians internally displaced, with 14.5 million people inside Ukraine needing urgent humanitarian assistance.
While there's strong political support from the United States and Canada, European Union countries, parts of Latin America and East Asian states such as South Korea and Japan, notable was the quiet absence of many African and nonaligned countries and Russia's political groupies.
In media comments outside the council, Kuleba was flanked by over fifty ambassadors and foreign ministers showing solidarity with his embattled Eastern European country battered by Moscow's military bludgeon. This truly impressive commitment was nearly unprecedented in the U.N.
Cameroon told correspondents that Ukraine matters.
"If we somehow let Putin eak out a win, of course, that's bad for European security, disastrous for Ukraine's security, but it's also bad for American security." He added that such a win "would be celebrated in the Kremlin but celebrated by the Chinese leadership too."
"None of us will allow our Ukraine to end," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a separate address in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism: The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China."
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