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In response to
"Russian Troops in Belarus Spur Debate Over the Threat to Ukraine"
by
crash davis
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At the U.N. Security Council, calls multiply for an investigation into Iran’s sale of drones to Russia
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Russia’s attacks on vital services in Ukraine — including power, heat and water — threaten to deepen civilian suffering on a mass scale, United Nations officials reported to the Security Council on Friday, with 18 million people already in need of some form of emergency aid and up to 10 million who will need psychological care in the future.
“The sheer depth of the humanitarian catastrophe is staggering,” said Denise Brown, the U.N. aid coordinator for Ukraine. “Temperatures are plummeting in Ukraine as winter approaches.”
Several council members called for a U.N. investigation into Iran’s sale to Russia of exploding drones, used to attack Ukrainian cities, which they called a blatant violation of a 2015 U.N. resolution. The Russian ambassador warned of unspecified consequences if there were such an inquiry.
But as in several previous meetings on the war in Ukraine, the council took no formal action, nor was any proposed. Any such effort would be futile, given that Russia, one of the body’s five permanent members, holds veto power.
The Russian ambassador, Vasily A. Nebenzya, walked out rather than give the Ukrainian representative, Sergiy Kyslytsya, “the strange and perverse pleasure” of being listened to. But before the Ukrainian spoke, Mr. Nebenzya made a rapid-fire series of denials and unsubstantiated charges of inhumane conduct by Ukraine, which he said Russia had reported to the United Nations without hearing “anything intelligible by way of reaction so far.”
When his turn came, Mr. Kyslytsya included in his comments that “the day will come when Russia will be removed from the council altogether.”
Western denunciations of Russia have grown harsher since the war began eight months ago; even the ambassador from France, a leading advocate of a diplomatic solution earlier in the conflict, was direct and scathing.
“Russia is not even trying to hide the crimes it’s committing,” said that official, Nicolas de Rivière.
“By targeting civilians, Russia is deliberately violating international humanitarian law,” he added, and is “counting on the suffering of civilians” to break Ukrainian resistance.
The British ambassador, James Kariuki, was no less blunt. “Russian attacks mean that Ukrainians are losing the ability to heat their homes and cook their food,” he said. “The intent behind these attacks is clear: Russia is seeking to subjugate Ukraine by terrorizing civilians, and it is doing so using weaponry obtained from Iran.”
Both Russia and Iran have, despite ample evidence, denied the use of Iranian-made weapons in Ukraine.
The ambassador from China, which has stayed on good terms with Moscow throughout the war, expressed sympathy for Ukrainians without mentioning Russia’s part in their suffering. The official, Geng Shuang, said experience had shown that penalties and isolation “are not effective ways to resolve the crisis,” and that the world “should focus on encouraging peace talks and seek a political solution.”
The American ambassador present, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, retorted that “vague calls for diplomacy only enable Russia as it commits further abuses.”
— Richard Pérez-Peña
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