Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared, during a Sept. 24 U.N. Security Council meeting, that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will only stop through a forceful response.
Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin “has broken so many international norms and rules that he won’t stop on his own.”
Instead, the Ukrainian leader insisted, “Russia can only be forced into peace, and that’s exactly what’s needed.”
Zelenskyy offered his remarks before the 15-member Security Council ahead of his planned Sept. 25 address before the entire U.N. General Assembly. The Ukrainian leader said he’s preparing for a new peace summit concerning the ongoing war and invited “all principled nations” to attend.
“This is the process that will lead us to peace, to a just peace, a real peace, a peace that will last,” Zelenskyy said.
“We have the peace formula. We have the U.N. Charter, and we have all the strengths needed to make it happen. What’s needed is determination. All of us already know how to achieve it,” he continued.
Several other members of the U.N. Security Council took turns rebuking the Russian Federation, which is one of five veto-capable permanent members on the panel. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres also joined in condemning the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and called the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 “a clear violation” of the U.N. charter.
Addressing the Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned North Korea and Iran for supplying weapons to Russia.
“North Korea and Iran are not the only ones aiding and abetting Russia,” Blinken continued. “China, another permanent member of this council, is the top provider of machine tools, microelectronics, and other items that Russia is using to rebuild, to restock, to ramp up its war machine, and sustain its brutal aggression.”
Blinken argued there’s an important distinction between those countries supplying weapons to Russia and those supplying weapons to Ukraine, including the United States.
“Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine the victim. Russia fights for conquest. Ukraine fights for survival. If countries stop supporting Russia, Putin’s invasion would soon come to an end. If countries stop supporting Ukraine, Ukraine could soon come to an end,” Blinken said.
Zelenskyy is set to meet with President Joe Biden on Sept. 26 to present a new so-called “victory plan” to end the war in Ukraine. He will also present this victory plan to Congress and the two leading U.S. presidential candidates—Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump—later this week.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff on Tuesday confirmed that the plan includes the security guarantee of NATO membership, which has been a principal demand of Kyiv, a key point of contention for Moscow, and a point of skepticism from many Western allies, including the United States.
Russian U.N. representative Vasily Nebenzya, responding to the various criticisms at the Security Council meeting, insisted the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was not an act of unprovoked aggression. Instead, Nebenzya said the Russian invasion was connected to the ouster of Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, which Nebenzya called “a coup which was instigated by the West.”
The Russian representative said people in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region did not wish to remain a part of the country after Yanukovych’s ouster but said this issue of Donbas separatism could’ve been resolved peacefully through the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements. Rather than support the Minsk agreement, Nebenzya said the post-Yanukovych Ukrainian leadership “took great pains to sabotage it, and they feverishly armed themselves and prepared for war with Russia, with the assistance of the U.S. and their allies.”
Nebenzya said Russia decided to launch its invasion, which it has dubbed a “special military operation,” in response to an uptick in Ukrainian military strikes targeting these separatist regions of the Donbas.
Algerian delegate Ahmed Attaf said his country has offered to mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Further, he insisted the U.N. members should encourage talks that allow the parties to “address the root causes of conflict as a whole and to heed the security concerns of both parties.”
