YouSaid · the spoken record

Nebenzia

lines on the record: 5,044
first: 2017-08-02
most recent: 2023-12-30
sittings or episodes: 461
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“As far as Syria is concerned, it is clear, including from the Secretary-General’s report on the protection of civilians (S/2023/345), that the main problems are the consequences of the illegal interference in the country’s internal affairs and of its occupation. And that is a result of the so-called Global Coalition’s air strikes and of the terrorist groups that have run rampant on the territory outside Damascus’s control and that are responsible for most of the crimes that have been committed. At the same time, the civilian population has continued to suffer in the areas of Syria occupied by the United States and the forces it controls, including from the plundering of the country’s natural resources. The horrific situation in the Rukban, Al-Hol and Roj camps on territory controlled by the United States has been going on for years.”
2023-05-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9327 (2023) · source
“The use of starvation as a war tactic resulted in the deaths of over 600,000 people in Leningrad. In contemporary armed conflicts, a particular threat is posed by terrorist and extremist groups that wage war with no respect whatsoever for the rules. Of especial concern is the continuing rise of the terrorist threat in the Sahara-Sahel region, including from Islamic State-Khorasan Province in Afghanistan, which targets members of religious and ethnic minorities. In Syria and Yemen the situation is stabilizing, but even there the humanitarian situation remains difficult, as people still do not have sufficient basic necessities, including food and medicines.”
2023-05-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9327 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We express our gratitude to today’s briefers. Food insecurity is a serious problem for the international community. Its causes are multifaceted and began long before the current situation. Not only armed conflicts, but also unilateral sanctions imposed by Western countries play an important role in that regard. There is no justification for the use hunger as a method of warfare. That rule was definitively enshrined in the Protocol Additional I to the Geneva Conventions relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. At the same time, however, it is important to remember that the emergence of that norm was a direct result of the blockade of Leningrad by German and Finnish forces when the city was surrounded with the aim of starving its millions of inhabitants to death.”
2023-05-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9327 (2023) · source
“The misanthropic heart of the current Kyiv regime, which worships the Ukrainian nationalists of the past who committed heinous crimes against the peaceful Polish, Jewish and Russian population, was fully demonstrated in the long- standing war it unleashed against the Russian-speaking population of Donbas. The countries of the West not only did not prevent that, but their leaders themselves admit that they blatantly sabotaged the implementation of the Minsk agreements in order to continue to use the Kyiv authorities for their own interests. Despite their already unprecedented level of involvement in the conflict, they are not abandoning their goals now. Russia reserves the right to take any measures necessary to neutralize threats to its security, and the goals of the special military operation will be met.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“That is also relevant for those in the West who take the time to listen to the statements of its representatives. Here is a statement by Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, who said that “If they stop sending weapons to Ukraine, the war would start in other countries. The number of terrorist attacks in Europe would increase significantly. In general, people would not be able to sit quietly eating croissants in restaurants in Europe.” But the Western countries knew exactly who they were bringing to power as a result of the 2014 coup d’état and who they had carefully nurtured prior to that in the interests of systematically transforming Ukraine into an anti-Russia country.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“Even the British Ministry of Defence recently admitted that not all shipments reach the conflict zone. We have repeatedly pointed out that Western weapons will end up in the hands of organized crime groups, terrorists and armed groups, not only in Europe, but also in other regions of the world. Western countries invariably try to gloss over that uncomfortable topic. In the same way, they ignore the many crimes of the Zelenskyy regime. Moreover, the direct confession on 16 May of the Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, who said that they had already gotten — which means killed — many people, including public and media personalities from Russia, also went unnoticed. The terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime is clear.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“In that regard, the hypocrisy of Western countries is also clear due to their direct violation of their international agreements and commitments regarding the supply of such military equipment. We spoke at length about that during the open debate of the Security Council on 10 April (see S/PV.9301), citing specific examples of the extremely negative consequences of such violations. Other countries from various regions of the world have also called for an end to the uncontrolled proliferation of weapons. Recently, independent journalist Seymour Hersh reported that early in the special military operation, weapons supplied by Western countries to Ukraine flooded into Poland, Romania and other border countries because Ukrainian commanders at various levels were personally reselling the shipments or dumping them onto the black market.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“Western countries are well aware of those practices, but they never mention those cities when they talk about the protection of civilians or the norms of international humanitarian law. They have absolutely no shame about the fact that those attacks are carried out with weapons supplied by them. We have repeatedly cited examples of the use of American HIMARS missiles on civilian targets. Moreover, The Washington Post has cited evidence from Ukrainian officials that the United States de facto controls some military operations, and Kyiv as a rule does not use Washington-provided missile systems without the confirmation or the provision of coordinates by the United States military.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“On 12 and 13 May, combat aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched Storm Shadow missiles and an American ADM‐160 miniature air‐launched decoy missile at the Polypak polymer products plant and the Milam meat processing plant in Luhansk, which started a fire, destroyed residential buildings and injured civilians, including 6 children. The United Kingdom did not stop there. It supplied an additional 400 such missiles, as well as anti-aircraft missile systems and drones with a range of more than 200 kilometres. How many of those missiles will hit civilian targets? After all, attacks by the Kyiv regime on civilian infrastructure and civilians in Donbas are a daily reality. Donetsk has lived under constant shelling since 2014, and now not a day goes by without reports of civilian casualties.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“Iraq, where the Americans have dropped hundreds of thousands of such shells, is also no stranger to that. But this time, the British were quick to cover themselves: James Heappey, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, was quick to declare that London has no obligation to monitor the deployment of the depleted uranium shells or to eliminate the consequences of their use after the end of the conflict. It is with the same cynicism that London is trying to absolve itself of responsibility for Kyiv’s use of British- supplied long-range Storm Shadow missile systems.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“European countries report that some 600 tanks have already been sent to Ukraine. Discussions are under way on deliveries of combat aircraft — fighter jets and bombers. Crews are being trained in European countries and special forces are being trained in Germany, according to media reports. The fact that Ukraine is being used by the West as a training site and that the West is not concerned about the fate of its population is well illustrated by London’s decision to supply depleted uranium shells to Kyiv. The United Kingdom is well aware of their dire long-term consequences for the environment and public health. The Serbs are still reeling from the NATO bombing in 1999, when 15 tons of depleted uranium were used. Numerous cases of increased cancer and other pathologies have been documented.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“It is time to call it what it is and rename it the “European War Facility”. The European Commission plans to allocate another €1.5 billion for the production of ammunition. Germany also reportedly plans to send the largest amount of so- called assistance, worth €2.7 billion, which will include armoured vehicles, Leopard tanks, anti-aircraft guns, hundreds of guided missiles, reconnaissance drones and logistical support vehicles. As noted by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, NATO countries have together already allocated more than €65 billion to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. By comparison, $18 billion was spent on food security between 2021 and 2023. Those are the real priorities of the collective West. Moreover, the range of supplies is steadily expanding, going far beyond defence weaponry.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“At the heart of that strategy is a clear desire to continue to impose their will and so-called rules on everyone. Exorbitant sums of money are being spent to pump arms into Ukraine — billions of dollars from taxpayers’ pockets, which flow into the accounts of the Western military-industrial complex. Last December, the United States Congress approved $48 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, while a new tranche of $1.2 billion was announced a few days ago. Not long ago, Mr. Borrell also reported that the assistance provided to Kyiv by European Union countries and organizations alone totalled €16 billion. The same Josep Borrell Fontelles offered to allocate €3.5 billion for additional financing for the European Peace Facility, the funds of which are used to pay for military supplies to Ukraine.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“The supply of increasingly powerful weapons systems, combined with the ongoing transfer of strike data to Kyiv and the training of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on its territory, means that those States are not only parties to the armed conflict with Russia, according to the 1907 Hague Convention concerning the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War, but they are also complicit in the war crimes committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions. The aims of the collective West are obvious to everyone. Western politicians do not try to hide them. And neither moral principles nor the highest human values are of any consequence, since they use Ukraine as a testing site and seek to prolong the conflict to the last Ukrainian, in an effort to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“He said that in order to end the war now, “stop providing military aid to Ukraine and Ukraine [will] have to surrender in a few days. That is it, the war is over”. British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also spoke on the matter. He said that the United Kingdom would continue to provide military aid to Ukraine so that other Western countries would not be tempted to force the Kyiv authorities to make concessions in order to achieve peace.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): Western countries insist that they are not parties to the conflict but are only helping Ukraine to defend itself. However, the reality is the polar opposite. A proxy war is being waged with Russia in Ukraine. Since the last Council meeting in February on the subject of Western arms deliveries to Ukraine (see S/PV.9256), not only has the flow of arms not decreased, but it is increasing. That shows that NATO countries support increased arms flows. It is clear that they are not interested in a peaceful settlement to the conflict. The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles, added another feather to his cap.”
2023-05-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9325 (2023) · source
“We support the ongoing operation of the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen, whose role cannot be overstated. We remain convinced that any restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as any obstacles to the work of humanitarian personnel, are unacceptable. In conclusion, we would like to once again recall resolution 598 (1987) and other initiatives aimed at regional stabilization, including Russia’s updated concept of collective security.”
2023-05-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9323 (2023) · source
“We support the work of Special Envoy Grundberg and hope that his active shuttle diplomacy will enable us to reach a sustainable long-term ceasefire, creating opportunities for the launch of a full-fledged, inclusive national dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations. At a certain stage, we will have to consider updating the international legal foundations of such a settlement so that they reflect the real situation on the ground. While the lengthy period of calm has provided some respite for ordinary Yemenis in their daily lives, the humanitarian situation in the country remains dire. Many areas continue to experience shortages in basic necessities, including food and medical supplies, but those must continue to be provided to the Yemeni people on a non-discriminatory basis.”
2023-05-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9323 (2023) · source
“For our part, we will continue to assist the international mediation efforts in Yemen by maintaining contact with all the leading political forces in the country and trying to ensure that they take a constructive approach. The international community’s common goal for Yemen is achieving a comprehensive settlement rather than anyone’s individual agenda, including in the energy sector. First and foremost, we need to work towards resolving the many fundamental issues that are impeding a settlement of the Yemeni crisis and affecting not just Yemen but its neighbouring States.”
2023-05-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9323 (2023) · source
“As a result, there were releases on both sides, amounting to roughly 900 people in total. The establishment of conducive conditions for a settlement is also being fostered by the regional stabilization. It is important for that process not to stall. Yemen’s leadership should take more active steps to find compromise solutions. Achieving peace in the country will be problematic unless both sides make constructive concessions. We therefore appreciate the ongoing mediation efforts by regional Powers, including Saudi Arabia and Oman. Thanks to them, the Yemenis have come closer to agreeing on a number of military and political issues, which should bolster the cessation of hostilities and ease the acute humanitarian crisis.”
2023-05-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9323 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We are grateful to our briefers today. The current situation in Yemen is grounds for cautious optimism. We note the progress on resolving the years-long military and political crisis in Yemen achieved by the Yemeni parties with support from the United Nations and regional forces. On the military front, the situation is calm on the whole. The fact that there are no large-scale hostilities, even though there is no official truce at present, says a great deal about the Yemeni parties’ determination to engage in a genuine search for appropriate solutions to put an end to the conflict once and for all and to transform the Yemeni settlement process into a fully fledged political dialogue. Another telling example is the successful large-scale exchange of prisoners and detainees last month.”
2023-05-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9323 (2023) · source
“But we would like to recall that, in March at the time of the extension, we already spoke about a lack of progress on the five systemic issues blocking Russia’s agricultural supplies. We could not guarantee that the package agreement would be extended.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“The package proposed by the Secretary-General works only on the part related to servicing Ukrainian commercial exports. Russian agricultural supplies continue to be effectively blocked by Western sanctions without any prospect of their easement for supposedly non-sanctioned fertilizers and food. The United States and its satellites, with their usual preaching, are essentially pushing the narrative that the world needs Ukrainian corn for animal feed, which amounts to 70 per cent of exports, more than it needs Russian wheat and fertilizer. As we know, high-level four-party talks were held in Istanbul last week to consider the future of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Contacts on that subject are ongoing.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“The Ukrainian side in the Joint Coordination Centre refused to even discuss the unblocking of the Togliatti- Odesa ammonia pipeline, which was enshrined in the applicable tripartite agreement. Instead, it put forward new series of conditions that were not part of the Initiative. For nearly a year now, we have seen no progress whatsoever in the second part of package deal between Guterres and the Russian Federation, namely the Memorandum of Understanding between Russia and the United Nations Secretariat. The main Russian bank, Rosselkhozbank, which is the entity that is specifically intended to conduct financial transactions on exports of foodstuffs, remains under sanctions. The one-time transactions that were so generously promised by Washington and Brussels are just laughable when they are presented as a viable solution to the problem.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“For almost a year, Ukraine’s agricultural goods have been used by the West, which was not hungry in the first place. It is only since 18 March, at the beginning of the third phase of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, that food supplies to African countries have increased by 54 per cent compared to the second phase. And that was possible only thanks to the persistent efforts of the Russian team at the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul. They were the only one who fought, even against the United Nations, to ensure that for priority consideration be given to applications from ships bound for Africa. The export of ammonia was to be occur in parallel with the export of grain. However, that never happened.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“Despite the fact that global problems in the field of food security appeared long before the start of the special military operation and were the result of the irresponsible monetary policy of Western countries and were compounded by the pandemic, on 22 July 2022, we responded positively to the Secretary- General’s initiative, the main goal of which was to ease the situation by facilitating the supply of food and fertilizer to developing countries. A package deal was concluded to export food and ammonia via Ukrainian ports and to unblock the export of grain and fertilizers from Russia. However, things did not go according to plan. As of 4 May, 40 per cent of all products exported along the humanitarian sea corridor went to the EU countries. The share of the poorest countries is less than 3 per cent.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“They introduced a unilateral ban on imports and, in some cases, even a ban on transit through their territories of grain and other agricultural goods from Ukraine. It is undeniable that a large part of Ukrainian food remains in the EU, even though they were allegedly originally intended to be sent to the Global South. This is a vivid example of the true nature of Brussels’ famous humanitarian initiatives. Let me recall that the launch of the solidarity corridors was accompanied by measures to liberalize Ukrainian exports to the EU, which greatly facilitated the supply of Ukrainian goods to the EU market and not the markets of developing countries. Russia approaches the food situation in the world very responsibly.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“The West has always put its interests first. We are therefore essentially witnessing another example of how American money comes full circle. Most of it will return to the accounts of Western corporations, and some will end up in the offshore accounts of Ukrainian and American bureaucrats. Ukrainian leaders will probably not be able to take all of it with them when they leave the country in a hurry, as was the case with the former President of Afghanistan. The European countries are equally cynical. When it came down to the well-being of farmers in EU countries, political slogans gave way to objective analysis. In April, the countries, which, because of so-called solidarity corridors, were overstocked with Ukrainian agricultural products and took extreme measures.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“As we understand it, the funds will be distributed by the American financial company Black Rock, with which Kyiv just recently signed an agreement to launch the Ukraine Development Fund. Under the guise of attracting private investment for large-scale projects in key areas of the economy, we see the transfer of State sovereignty under the external corporate control of the largest investment fund in the world, headquartered in New York. Earlier, we also stated in the Council that over the past 10 years, the amount of Ukrainian arable land that has come under the control of mostly American agro-industrial companies is in excess of 4 million hectares. And the food supplies exported from Ukraine as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative were not being sent, as we now know, for the use of starving countries, but for commercial deliveries.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“Today we will hear a lot about the solidarity of the Western community with Ukraine, the readiness to support it until the end. However, they need to understand that this support will lead Ukraine to this very end. External debt in 2022 rose to a record $132 billion, or 89 per cent of its gross domestic product. It is estimated that, at the end of the current year, it will exceed 100 per cent. The colossal amounts provided to Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund, the EU and Washington are driving this country into debt. All this solidarity is not free, and it is ordinary Ukrainians will have to pay it back. In the meantime, capital is flowing into the country.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“On 3 May, the Federal Security Service of Russia informed us that it thwarted an assassination attempt on the leadership of the Republic of Crimea, which was being planned by the intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. The Chief of Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, openly stated his readiness to kill Russians nationals around the world. And the State news agency of Ukraine, UNIAN, after the assassination attempt on Zakhar Prilepin, published a poll on which Russian figure should be next. If that is not an open incitement to terrorism then what is it? How can the people of France, the United States and other countries accept this when they know first-hand about terrorist attacks? How can the Secretary-General and representatives of other international organizations remain silent about that?”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“Annalena Baerbock recently said that weapon supplies by third countries to Russia are unacceptable because they can be considered tantamount to participation in the conflict. What about the fact that the entire military machine of the West is now fuelling the war? This is yet another honest confession showing the West’s participation in the conflict. With the tolerance of Western patrons, Kyiv does not shy away from openly terrorist methods either. Among its crimes are the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, the murder of journalists Darya Dugina, Maxim Fomin and the attempt on the life of Zakhar Prilepin, which resulted in the death of his friend, Alexander Shubin.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“Western countries are widely known for loving to talk about combating impunity, especially when it does not involve their own crimes. They believe they have gotten away with millions of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. We are convinced that one day they will be held accountable. And no threats of sanctions against judges, as was the case with the investigations of United States war crimes in Afghanistan, or intimidation of witnesses and investigative reporters or suppression of facts will help. We can already see that developing countries that are neutral on Ukraine are rejecting the pressure being exerted upon them. We are convinced that they are tired of justifying their every step or call for peace.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“Some of those weapons are being supplied by Security Council members sitting right next to us, who care so much about the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Ukraine. On a daily basis, those weapons kill civilians, women and children, destroy hospitals and schools in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson oblasts. The entire military potential of NATO is targeting them, and the Kyiv authorities openly boast that they legally have the right to destroy everything in those territories. Once again, we want to respond to those who have said this or will say this today: Russian Federation military forces are not fighting civilians and are not subjecting them to targeted strikes, unlike the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“The same shells were also used in the attack on Donetsk’s central cathedral during the all-night Easter service. Our briefer today did not say a word about that either. Where is his commitment to the protection of civilians? Or are they the wrong kind of civilians? Responsibility for those crimes lies not only with the Kyiv regime, but also with those that supply it with weapons. Moreover, every day, just as we think that the level of pumping weapons into Ukraine has reached its limits, we receive new reports of deliveries of increasingly heavy and sophisticated Western weapons — HIMARS Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, shells with depleted uranium, long-range missile systems, hundreds of tanks, and so on. We will return to this issue during the meeting we requested on this topic on 18 May.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“That is yet another clear illustration of the fact that there is no genuine concern for the fate of people living in Ukraine and even less concern for those living in the liberated territories of Donbas — just as the Western delegations have not been concerned about the situation of ordinary people there since 2014. And we will we not hear today any expression of sorrow about the fact that on 28 April, Ukrainian formations carried out yet another horrendous shelling of Donetsk. They targeted a bus full of people with artillery fire and burned it to the ground. Nine people were killed, including a child. An expert examination showed that the shelling was carried out using high- explosive missiles designed for multiple-launch rocket systems, which were manufactured in Slovakia.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We would like to begin our statement by noting the hypocrisy underlying today’s meeting of the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. There were no meetings held on that topic for the entire month of April, and the delegations of France and Ecuador, as well as other Western delegations, showed no interest in the situation in Ukraine. However, today we can see that the members of the European Union (EU) literally lined up to read out their identical statements on camera to tick that box.”
2023-05-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9321 (2023) · source
“We call on the Council to assess the situation realistically. It is vital that we do not blindly believe what the biased Western stakeholders and the illegitimate High Representative are pushing, but rather take a deeper look at the existing issues through the prism of the Dayton Peace Agreement endorsed by the resolutions of the Council. As one of the States that witnessed the signing of the Dayton Agreement, Russia fully supports the fundamental principles of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the equality of its three constituent peoples and two entities with broad constitutional powers. We believe that the key to solving the intra-Bosnian problems lies exclusively in engaging in inclusive inter-ethnic dialogue, without external interference, and only on the basis of the Dayton provisions.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Yet our attention was called to the presence of such an assessment as well as its biased political section, which does not reflect the reality on the ground. We believe that the report’s deliberate exaggerations and approach laying the blame exclusively on Bosnian Serbs are just one more projection of the interests of some EU countries onto the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina through EUFOR-Althea. In that connection, we would recommend that EUFOR-Althea’s leadership focus on conducting assessments of the security situation, which has remained at an invariably good level all these years. We invite Council members to familiarize themselves with the truly noteworthy report by Republika Srpska, which is full of useful factual material on the real situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Worse, it is undermining the very foundations of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s statehood and violating the fundamental rights of its constituent peoples, thereby ratcheting up the tensions yet again. We will refrain from commenting on the so-called report of the so-called High Representative. In our view it is impermissible to disseminate the fabrications of a private individual as a Security Council document. We emphasize once again that there is not and never has been a Security Council decision approving Mr. Schmidt’s appointment to the post of High Representative. We were disappointed by the fifty-fifth report of European Union Military Operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR-Althea), whose mandate, as we know, does not include providing an assessment of the internal political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Using its illegal toolkit, the Office of the High Representative is supposed to radically reshape the political scene at every level of Government, destroy the system of balance between the country’s peoples, ensure the presence of Brussels- and Washington-controlled forces and drive the country into the arms of NATO in defiance of its peoples’ sovereign will. The result would be a disaster not only for the region, but also for the whole of Europe. The Council cannot turn a blind eye to the lawlessness that is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dayton’s multi-ethnic vision for the country is in danger. The Western countries’ classic neocolonial Western approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina poses a real threat to the implementation of the Peace Agreement.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“We demand that the process of dialogue and consensus be resumed. The Office of the High Representative itself should be shut down as soon as possible. It has done nothing but harm to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its peoples. The Western experiment on Bosnian society has run its course, and it is time to free the people of the country from humiliation. The increasingly frequent mass protests against the activities of the Office of the High Representative testify to the relevance of that argument. The goal of the West’s strategy is quite clear and should mislead no one.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“By crudely reshaping the most important areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s domestic political life according to their own point of view, which is completely untethered from reality, these external forces are only multiplying the problems and making them chronic ones. They give off an impression that they are addressing the essential issues. Frankly, the repercussions of this criminal actions will affect generations of Bosnians, and in all honesty, and with a sense of responsibility, we want to warn the Security Council about that right now. The Peace Implementation Council Steering Board has become a club of interests that is clearly opposed to the interests of the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Once again, it has become clear that our decision to suspend our participation in the Steering Board was both timely and fully justified.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Schmidt is taking decisions on the composition of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As for the Constitution, we cannot neglect to mention the work of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which while it is supposed to guard the interests of the country, is increasingly becoming a tool to serve Western capitals, often acting in conjunction with the Office of the High Representative. Indeed, even today three of the nine judges serving on the Court are foreign nationals. Now it is a German, an Albanian and a Swiss who are caring for the well-being of the country’s citizens. That is a particularly blatant example of how not to respect the sovereignty of a country in the twenty- first century, let alone one in the centre of Europe.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“We are particularly concerned about the destructive activities of the self- styled High Representative. The Peace Implementation Council Steering Board previously agreed on a course towards handing over full responsibility to the Bosnian peoples, which has been cast aside and forgotten. By blatantly interfering in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s internal affairs, the pseudo- High Representative’s behaviour in that sovereign and independent European State evokes some of the worst colonial traditions by interfering in the Constitution of one of its entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its penal code and electoral laws have nothing to do with facilitating the implementation of the Peace Agreement, no matter how hard Mr. Schmidt and his Western sponsors try to suggest that. The situation is already so out of hand that Mr.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We welcome the participation in today’s meeting of Her Excellency Mrs. Željka Cvijanović, Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We note with deep concern that the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has entered a qualitatively new and dangerous phase. The Western community has become directly involved in the systemic internal political crisis in the country. External forces, acting through the Office of the High Representative and a number of international presences in Sarajevo, are openly manipulating the deepening inter-ethnic and inter-party tensions, blatantly abusing the role assigned to them in the 1995 General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Nevertheless, it is also the practice of the Security Council to hear speakers in their personal capacity. That is how we will perceive Mr. Schmidt’s presence in the Chamber today.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We would like to put on record our disagreement with the presence of Mr. Christian Schmidt at this meeting in his capacity as so-called High Representative. The Security Council did not approve him for that position. We want to stress that the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina is on the Council’s agenda under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. For a quarter of a century now, it has been our practice to approve High Representatives. Without a corresponding mandate from the Council, the position of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina therefore remains vacant. In view of that, we would like to emphasize that Mr. Schmidt has no right to speak on behalf of the international community or to submit any documents to the Security Council.”
2023-05-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9319 (2023) · source
“The sooner the OSCE returns to much-needed calm and mutually respectful dialogue, the greater its chances of fitting into the new world order. We would like to believe that those in and around Vienna are fully aware of that.”
2023-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9316 (2023) · source
“But for that it is essential not only to stop demonizing one’s opponents but also to abandon a logic of confrontation and zero-sum games. As for the actual announced topic of our meeting today, concerning the interaction between the two organizations under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, we believe that cooperation should be conducted in full transparency and accountability to participating States. It should serve the quest for unifying principles rather than promoting confrontational attitudes. However, we want to point out that the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security lies with the Security Council. It seems that some parties in Vienna may have forgotten that in their enthusiasm for anti-Russian projects.”
2023-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9316 (2023) · source