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

“The intensification of political and administrative pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is accompanied by a smear campaign in the Ukrainian media that involves politicians and high-ranking officials. For example, on 7 January, the head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyy, called the existence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church an anomaly that should not exist in Ukraine. Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, said that a new draft law against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being prepared in order to decide the course of action against what he claimed to be a religious organization that poses a threat to the national security of Ukraine.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“Meanwhile, the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church itself, in so-called worship services intended to stir up political unrest, do not shy away from schismatic and hateful rhetoric, speaking of the liberation of holy places from Russian captivity and their purging. We all remember the bloody and tragic consequences of such calls for purges throughout history. Ukraine is now literally a step away from a fratricidal internal religious catastrophe, and the regime in power is only adding fuel to the fire. According to the information available to us, a number of new initiatives are being prepared that will discriminate against the parishes and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, depriving it of its historical and legal name and even erasing it completely.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“It should be noted that the Ukrainian authorities, long ago, with the support of their Western backers, decided to undermine the Canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. As we heard from Metropolitan Anthony, the people are now having the submissive, schismatic Church of Ukraine, which was artificially created in 2018, imposed upon them. That Kyiv-American political project has nothing to do with matters of faith. On the basis of that discriminatory legislation, the seizure of Ukrainian Orthodox churches continues, as does the illegal forced liquidation of their parishes under the guise of supposedly voluntary conversions to other denominations. Such measures are accompanied by widespread clashes and the beating of parishioners and clergy.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“In December 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law on the media, which essentially brought the Ukrainian media under the control of the authorities. The National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine is now able, without any judicial proceedings, to prohibit online media, cancel the registration of print media and demand that Internet providers block access to any publications. The authoritarian and discriminatory nature of the law was even noted by Western media and the International Federation of Journalists. The latest area of Kyiv’s repressive policy is its war against canonical orthodoxy. Ukraine has been brought to the brink of a large-scale interreligious conflict that is unprecedented in the history of modern-day Europe.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“They are then subject to proposals that they be exchanged for Ukrainian soldiers who have been taken prisoner, but, given that so many Ukrainian soldiers are being taken prisoner or surrendering, Kyiv is trying to increase the number of people it can swap through blanket arrests from among its own civilian population. Further, under the pretext of this so-called “war with occupiers”, the Ukrainian authorities have adopted a number of very draconian laws, including the law on so-called “collaborationism”, which allows for the prosecution of people even for receiving humanitarian assistance from Russian authorities or for refusing to evacuate from their homes. The media space in the country has been fully purged of alternative points of view.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“For example, the Ukrainian human rights defender Elena Berezhnaya, who for eight years studied and documented the process of the establishment of neo- Nazism in Ukraine and spoke before members of the Security Council as early as March 2022, was arrested by the Ukrainian security services and is still being detained on the absurd accusation of high treason. We have repeatedly drawn the attention of the Secretary- General and members of the Security Council to this glaring case. We call on the United Nations leadership to actively facilitate Ms. Berezhnaya’s release. We also know about hundreds of other examples of people being persecuted and arrested on the basis not only of publications and statements, but also denunciations, or even simply because they listen to Russian music or read Russian language media.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“With reference to the need to combat separatism and so-called “Kremlin propaganda”, political opponents, along with independent journalists and media companies, as well as members of public organizations that the authorities did not like, were persecuted. In just a few months, all opposition parties that were in favour of developing normal relations between Ukraine and Russia were entirely shut down. In the territory controlled by the Zelenskyy regime, there have been mass political repressions and arrests of civilian activists and human rights defenders. Any manifestation of disagreement with the official position is extirpated.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“All of the foregoing obligations incumbent on Ukraine under its Constitution and international documents are contradicted by at least 13 laws and decisions adopted by the Ukrainian regime between 2016 and 2022, all of which has led to an unprecedented uptick in Ukraine of Russophobia encouraged at the very top. Back in September 2021, President Zelenskyy called on those residents of Ukraine who consider themselves Russian to leave the country, and Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Danilov called Russians “rats and swine dogs”, also calling for them to be hounded and destroyed by any means possible. After the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, the formation of the “Zelenskyy dictatorship” in Ukraine rapidly gathered pace.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“These are all enshrined in such documents as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966, UNESCO’s Convention against Discrimination in Education of 1960, the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and Protocol No. 1 to the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities of 1992, and the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of 1990.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“Article 24 further provides that “[t]here shall be no privileges or restrictions based on race, colour of skin, political, religious and other beliefs, sex, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, linguistic or other characteristics.” Article 53 provides that “Citizens who belong to national minorities are guaranteed the right to receive instruction in their native language, or to study their native language in state and communal educational establishments and through national cultural societies in accordance with the law.” The Kyiv regime’s measures contradict Ukraine’s obligations to protect the rights of all ethnic groups in accordance with a whole host of international documents that, in particular, prohibit discrimination against national minorities and guarantee ethnic groups’ rights to education, to the preservation of their culture and to study their mother tongue.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“Indeed, under Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine, “the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed”, and under Article 11, Ukraine “promotes the consolidation and development of the Ukrainian nation, its historical consciousness, traditions and culture, and also the development of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of all indigenous peoples and national minorities of Ukraine”.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“In a country where the Russian language is the mother tongue of the majority of the population and where for many centuries the country was in cultural unity with Russia, this policy essentially means undermining the foundations that bind society together and imposing an artificial paradigm of Ukraine as an anti-Russia, even though Russians are the second largest ethnic group in the country.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“The persecution of dissent is being carried out on all fronts, from the full prohibition of the opposition and the arrest of public-opinion leaders to the destruction of freedom of speech and even freedom of religion as such. It is important to understand that this tightening of the screws in the Ukrainian public, political and cultural space did not start today, and neither did it start in February last year. Since coming to power as the result of an anti-constitutional coup d’état in 2014, the Kyiv regime has been steadily destroying everything that would in any way possibly link it to Russia.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“Many Council members are probably wondering why we have convened today’s meeting, whose focus is on the domestic situation in Ukraine. I would like to underscore that we are not talking about interference in church affairs, nor are we even talking about church affairs per se. Rather, we are convinced that the processes taking place in Ukraine are directly related to international peace and security and that they are having a direct impact on the prospects for establishing peace in the country. As we have already noted during our statement on 13 January (see S/PV.9243), in Ukraine, there has recently been a notable acceleration in the formation of a genuine despotic authoritarian regime.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We listened closely to the briefing of the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris, but we would like to underscore that the Russian Federation continues to believe that matters of human rights protection do not fall within the purview of the Security Council and must be discussed within the relevant United Nations organs. On the Council’s agenda today is not human rights as a separate subject, but rather the latest provocative steps taken by the Kyiv regime that make the prospect of a peaceful settlement in the country even more remote. We thank the Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Metropolitan Anthony, for his detailed information about the repressive actions of Kyiv against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”
2023-01-17 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9245 (2023) · source
“To date, however, neither the Kyiv regime nor its Western sponsors have drawn the right conclusions from the Ukrainian disaster. What is more, with the tolerance of the collective West, the Zelenskyy regime has become an authoritarian dictatorship, which in itself is a significant obstacle to peace. More recently, in addition to persecuting dissidents and opposition leaders in Ukraine, we have seen an attempt to destroy the only canonical church in the country — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. That could have very grave implications for regional peace and security, which is why we believe that this situation deserves close scrutiny by members of the Security Council. We therefore request the Japanese presidency to convene a separate Security Council meeting on this issue in the afternoon of 17 January.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“However, that did not fit with the plans of Zelenskyy or his predecessors or — as we now know thanks to the revelations of Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande — those of France and Germany as guarantor countries. Furthermore, we learned that the Minsk process served only as a smokescreen for the West, behind which it was secretly arming Ukraine in order to push it into a conflict with Russia. The beginning of the special military operation in February 2022 undermined those plans. The goal was to ensure that no threat could emanate from Ukrainian territory for Russia and that discrimination against Russian-speaking Ukrainians would end. If that result can be achieved through negotiations, we are ready to engage. If not, then we will achieve it through military means.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“For the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk Republics, the war has been going on for the entirety of those eight years. As far as how the population of that region survived under fire then and now, and what the people of the Donbas wanted and how they tried to achieve it, we intend to tell everyone about that next Friday under an Arria Formula meeting. We believe that all States, first and foremost the new members of the Council and everyone interested in this topic, will find that meeting very useful, as it will provide first- hand accounts by eyewitnesses, foreign journalists and researchers who were there. Everything could have ended differently for Ukraine had Kyiv implemented the Minsk agreements endorsed in resolution 2022 (2015).”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“That is a legitimate question, especially now that the Kyiv regime and its Western sponsors are trying to convince everyone that the goal of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is to destroy Ukraine as a State, almost to de-Ukrainize it and to force its Russification. We never declared such goals. It is important to understand that we are not fighting against the Ukrainian people. We are fighting against the criminal nationalist regime, which came to power in 2014 as a result of a Western-supported anti-constitutional coup and resolved to remove from Ukraine everything that is related to Russia and to glorify Nazi collaborators. That felonious policy resulted in an 8-year-long deadly war on the inhabitants of Donbas who opposed the new Government. Putting an end to that war was the main goal of our special military operation.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“That was acknowledged yesterday by the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, Mr. Reznikov, who said: “We are carrying out NATO’s mission without shedding their blood. We shed our blood. That is why the West should give us more money and weapons”. That is the formula of a NATO war by proxy “to the last Ukrainian”. It cannot be described any better. It also discloses the cynical confirmation of the true premise behind any Ukrainian so-called peace initiatives. I am sure that after my statement many colleagues will ask the legitimate question: what will it take for peace to prevail in Ukraine?”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“Whether Kyiv made that fateful step by itself or was heeding the instructions of its sponsors in London, Washington, D.C., and Brussels, is not that important now. What is important is that precisely then the Kyiv regime — despite facts and common sense to the contrary — embraced the illusion that with the increasing direct military assistance of NATO, Ukraine would be able to defeat Russia on the battlefield. Ukraine’s dictator still sticks to that dangerous delusion, even though many Western leaders have adopted a more sober view of the situation. Ukraine has basically turned into NATO’s private military company. Ukraine is provided money, weapons and intelligence data and is told what to target and where to attack. It is the people of Ukraine, who are forced to fight for someone else’s objectives, are the ones who suffer.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“679, Zelenskyy literally “noted the impossibility of conducting negotiations with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin”. That legislative provocation cannot be explained, other than by the intention of Kyiv and Western sponsors to continue fighting until the last Ukrainian. By the way, it is difficult to shed the impression that the Kyiv regime and its most ardent sponsors have completely forgotten the meaning of the word “peace”. It is no accident that the European Union is financing arms deliveries to Kyiv through the European Peace Facility, without even considering how abominable that sounds. The Ukrainian authorities once again revealed their true — and far from peaceful — colours in March 2022, when it revoked its own realistic elements for a peace deal that we were ready to discuss.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“However, even with the most cursory examination, it becomes clear that, behind that lovely facade, there is a rotten inside and even a hidden agenda. Kyiv does not conceal that Ukrainian peace means the capitulation of Russia, which must be endorsed by the international community. That is why, when making that shallow propagandist proposal for peace, Mr. Kuleba voiced that Russia is not expected to take part in such a summit. The much-vaunted Zelenskyy peace initiative that our Western colleagues fell over one another to praise follows the same hypocritical and inherently flawed logic. For anyone who believed, even for a minute, in the peaceful intentions of the Ukrainian dictator, I would like to remind them that, on 30 September, Ukraine legislatively ruled out the very possibility of dialogue with our country. Through Decree No.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“For example, our Ukrainian neighbours, who recently threatened us with terrible punishment and almost threatened to launch an offensive against Moscow, have today put on the garb of peacemakers. That is what we took away from yesterday’s meeting from the remarks of Ms. Dzhaparova (see S/PV.9241) and, before that, from the initiatives of her boss, Mr. Kuleba. Now Ukraine is running around brandishing the idea of some sort of a peace summit, implying in every way that it is Russia that wants no peace. Clearly, that is an attempt to strike a chord with a Western audience, which is asking increasingly inconvenient questions about how Kyiv spends its allotted money and about why Ukraine is rejecting all realistic mediation initiatives. At first glance, it seems that Kyiv is holding out an olive branch. What could be nobler?”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): To be frank, we do not fully understand why today’s meeting was convened. Is it so we can listen to a briefing by Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo based on the so-called reliable information thoughtfully provided by so-called independent sources and independent commissions? Did we hear anything new from our former Western colleagues today? Did we hear anything that we have not heard repeated in various manners over the past year? There is a novel titled Vanity Fair, written by British author William Thackeray, who is widely known in Russia. Meetings on Ukraine that have been convened by our former Western partners increasingly remind us of a “Hypocrisy Fair”, where the hypocrisy of the representatives of the collective West and the Kyiv regime is assuming the oddest forms.”
2023-01-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9243 (2023) · source
“We hope that that principal organ of the world Organization will not succumb to the unprecedented political blackmail that it has had to face. The sustainability and credibility of the international system of the administration of justice as a whole ultimately depend on its strength and consistency.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“We are counting on a more active role of the world Organization and its Secretary-General in such matters. It is disappointing that incomprehensible concepts, such the new vision for the rule of law advanced by the Secretariat, are very much along the lines of the rules-based world order. They do not emphasize the importance of taking into account the national, cultural and religious particularities of each State. Rather, they attempt to impose a pattern of behaviour and guidelines on the State and the societal structure of States Members of the United Nations. Instead of wasting budgetary money on such dubious speculative concepts, we would recommend focusing on preserving and protecting the system of international law, framed by the United Nations Charter. The International Court of Justice should play a key role in that regard.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“We are talking about the intention of approximately 50 States, mainly members of the EU and NATO, to side with Ukraine in the case before the Court regarding the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948. Many of those countries freely say that they are doing so for political reasons — to show support for Kyiv. However, we firmly believe that international law and the purposes and principles laid down in the Charter of the United Nations will still prevail over quasi-legal concepts, such as the rules-based world order, and frameworks such as the various so-called summits of democracies, NATO, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS) and other supposedly purely defensive alliances and systems of dividing States into right and wrong.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“If resolution 2202 (2015), which endorsed the Minsk package of measures, had been implemented in good faith, including by Security Council members present in the Chamber today, we would not be in the situation in which we now find ourselves. There we have compliance with the agreements that you, Mr. President, spoke about today, and there is a clear example of prevention. Right now we are witnessing another brazen attack by the West on international law in the form of unprecedented abuse of Article 63 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice in order to put blatant pressure on a principal organ of the United Nations.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“As we learned from the recent revelations of the direct participants in the events Ms. Merkel and Mr. Hollande, the West initially did not intend to settle anything. The Minsk agreements, by their own admission, were needed only to pump Ukraine with foreign weapons and mercenaries and to prepare it for military operations. Mr. Poroshenko also spoke about that. Against the background of such a systemic and monstrous deception, no one should be surprised that Zelenskyy, who came to power under the slogan of achieving peace, continued along the path assigned to him and plunged his country into a real disaster. Many people here, including the Secretary- General, who left the Chamber, like to talk about prevention.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“The culmination of such lawlessness was the setting on fire of anti-radical protesters in the Trade Union House in Odesa on 2 May 2014. The West turned a blind eye to that, making it clear that it was giving the Kyiv regime carte blanche to commit any crimes. Turchynov’s undertaking was continued by the oligarch Poroshenko, who was put in the presidential seat under the guise of fighting corruption. The civil war against its own people was to continue in Ukraine for another eight years, resulting in a real nightmare for the Donbas and the loss of many thousands of civilian lives, including children. All of that took place under the clichéd statements of Western politicians about the desire for a settlement and there being no alternative to the Minsk agreements. That was again a shameless lie.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“In case anyone did not understand, that violation was allegiance to the spirit and the letter of the Ukrainian Constitution at the time. The blatant violation of every conceivable procedure under Ukrainian law did not embarrass the United States or the European Union (EU) in the slightest. They hastened to recognize as the only legitimate leadership of Ukraine a clique of nationalists, who had declared themselves to be in power as a result of the Maidan coup. Such are the high standards of democracy and the rule of law. Encouraged by their support, in April 2014 the self-proclaimed Acting President Turchynov, by ordering the launching of a so-called anti-terrorist operation, unleashed a full-scale civil war against the people of Donbas, who refused to put up with such lawlessness and live under the thumb of radicals.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“She also shuffled the future Ukrainian leaders like a pack of cards in her telephone conversations in 2014. International law was dealt a mortal blow when, the very next day, the leaders of European countries trampled on the guarantees that they had given to incumbent and democratically elected President Yanukovych. The Ukrainian leader himself, who was still in the country, was declared absent and removed from office in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution at the time. The five judges of the Constitutional Court who resisted such arbitrariness were simply kicked out and replaced with the so-called right people — again, contrary to the basic law of the country, with the claim that the oath of office of a judge had been violated.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“The human-made Ukrainian crisis that I already mentioned fits very well into the chain of such events, which are the result of Western colonial thinking and hegemony. Those who are not biased are well aware that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is a consequence, not the root cause, of the Ukrainian crisis. It has actually been going on for at least nine years. February 2014, when the collective West prepared, financed and supported a bloody, anti-constitutional armed coup d’état in the country, hypocritically called the revolution of dignity, can very roughly be taken as the starting point. American politicians do not even hide their involvement in the event. Ms. Nuland even gave the amount spent on regime change: $5 billion.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Finally, since the organizers of today’s meeting are paying particular attention to Article 51 of the Charter, we should note that in Syria the United States has achieved yet another record in expanding its interpretation of its provisions. It has notified the Security Council about action in collective self-defence with Syrian Kurds against the Syrian army. In other words, it has claimed that it is self-defence to work with a non-State actor against the armed forces of the very country in which that actor is located. One wonders where in that regard the organizers of today’s meeting see the use of Article 51, and I quote from the concept note for today’s meeting, “only against an armed attack and within the requirements of necessity and proportionality” (S/2023/1, annex) and not “speciously... as a pretext” (ibid.).”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Incidentally, the Court’s real duties regarding the case of Libya are much more dismal, with years of feverish work producing zero results. Needless to say, the ICC has failed to apprehend or punish those responsible for war crimes and civilian deaths, just as it has failed to punish those who assassinated Mr. Al-Qadhafi. Yet another country that has suffered from the American-style rule of law is Syria. There again we have seen direct military aggression by the United States and NATO, with the occupation of significant parts of the country, which continues to this day, and with support provided to foreign fighters, who are essentially terrorists.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“The national wealth was plundered, the leader was killed without trial or consequences and a once-prosperous country was plunged into chaos and a civil war that is now in its second decade. The International Criminal Court (ICC), an instrument that is allegedly tasked with upholding the rule of law, also got involved in the case of Libya. In a matter of days the Prosecutor at the time, Luis Moreno Ocampo, fabricated a case against Muammar Al-Qadhafi, citing as evidence crude fakes about Viagra being handed out to soldiers for mass rapes and about hiring Black mercenaries to commit heinous abuses. Now the ICC, having successfully dehumanized the Libyan leader and his entourage, has become a fig leaf for Western aggression.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Of course, they never found any. Instead, they invaded the country, destroyed its economy and industry, killed its national leader and hundreds of thousands of civilians and established a multi-year occupation while appropriating Iraq’s national and natural resources. That, too, was a perfect example of the rules-based world order. Then there was Libya, where the concept of humanitarian intervention was also applied, but under a new name — the responsibility to protect. Resolution 1973 (2011), which authorized a no-fly zone, was interpreted by the United States and its satellites as carte blanche to carpet-bomb the country in yet another commonplace aggression in violation of international law and the Charter. The result was predictable.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Next was the concept of the war on terror, which led to the destruction and long-term occupation of Afghanistan, along with numerous unpunished war crimes committed by NATO soldiers, the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and record increases in drug production and trafficking. Afghanistan is still reeling from the consequences of those events. Meanwhile, the United States and its allies have developed a practice of broadly interpreting of Article 51 of the Charter as allowing self-defence against non-State actors on the territory of third countries. In other words, if Washington and its allies need to invade somewhere or bomb someone, all they have to do is declare that terrorists are there. We all remember the NATO aggression against Iraq launched on the utterly false pretext of the presence of weapons of mass destruction.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Their actions, which amounted to a commonplace aggression through a war of choice, were conducted under the fig leaf of the concept of so- called humanitarian intervention, which has nothing to do with international law. The same countries then sent comments to the International Court of Justice in support of the legality of the unilateral declaration of independence of so-called Kosovo. And now they tell us about the uniqueness of the Kosovo precedent and the inapplicability of their arguments and position to the referendums in Crimea and the liberated territories in Ukraine.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“According to data from the United States Census Bureau, as of 2022 there were more than 16 million veterans in the United States — people who were had been directly engaged in armed combat — despite the fact that no one has attacked the United States in two centuries. Think about that. International law and the public order based on its supremacy were grossly flouted by the collective West when the first NATO bombs were dropped on Yugoslavia, if not even earlier. The same countries that today like to refer to the Ukraine crisis as the first conflict in Europe since the end of the Second World War and an infringement of the principle of the inviolability of borders bombed and dismembered a sovereign country in the 1990s, in violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, tearing away a part of its territory.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“There is simply no other explanation as to why the NATO countries, in violation of basic principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have decided that it is their absolute right to expand their bloc, even if that goes against the principle of the indivisibility of security. The origins of the difficult situation in which we all find ourselves today also lie in Washington’s irrepressible desire to play the role of global policeman that it has single-handedly taken upon itself. According to a document prepared in 2022 by the Congressional Research Service, in the years since 1991, when the United States declared itself the victor in the Cold War, 251 cases of the use of the United States Armed Forces abroad have been recorded.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“The main theme of our Western colleagues’ statements lately is that the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 crossed a kind of Rubicon in international law. That might give one the impression that nothing illegal had ever happened in the world until then. Needless to say, that is not the case. International law has been repeatedly flouted and violated long before that, and certainly not by Russia. Let me look at a few examples. The true origins of the Ukraine crisis lie in the hypocrisy of the West and its utter unwillingness to consider the interests of others, even when it comes to issues as important as State security.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Of course, such an approach is fully in line with the Western concept of a rules-based world order whose rules are formulated by the West itself, and it is something we cannot agree with. It does not correspond to the truth or to the norms of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations. The West’s latest example of the arbitrary creation of rules to suit itself is the decision that has been mentioned today to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women. Legally speaking, it should not have been possible, but the United States and its allies were not deterred. They just went ahead and removed Iran. Yet they want to teach us about international law?”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We thank the briefers for their statements. For today’s meeting, our Japanese colleagues have focused our attention on issues related to the rule of law, which is indeed a very relevant and important topic that should be addressed systematically and impartially. However, the concept note (S/2023/1, annex) for our meeting today makes it clear that the organizers have no such intention. The statements we have heard today confirm that in addressing the question of the rule of law, our former Western partners only want to put forward a narrative about Russia’s alleged responsibility for emerging threats to international peace and security while ignoring their own egregious violations.”
2023-01-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9241 (2023) · source
“We are following the development of contacts between the sides and hope that they will be able to reach mutually acceptable agreements that can put an end to the decades-long armed confrontation. Should Colombia turn to the Security Council for support, we are ready to consider various options for international assistance in arriving at a possible agreement. In the meantime, the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia will continue to work in accordance with its mandate to verify the implementation of various provisions of the Final Agreement. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia intends to continue to provide comprehensive support to the Colombian peace process and the Verification Mission under the leadership of Mr. Ruiz Massieu.”
2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source
“The international community’s support and endorsement will help Bogotá in its efforts to establish peace with armed groups with the noble aim of ending the violence and suffering among the civilian population. We note the bilateral ceasefire with four illegal armed groups. It will be important to implement effective mechanisms for the bilateral monitoring and verification of the truce and to ensure effective State control in areas where the presence of the armed forces is limited as well as where warring armed groups are active. An essential factor for peace in the country is the achievement of agreements between Bogotá and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional armed group.”
2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source
“Colombia’s relations with Venezuela have been enormously important historically to ensuring peace and sustainable socioeconomic development, and we welcome the re-establishment of relations between those neighbouring States, which was reinforced by President Petro Urrego’s recent visit to Caracas. History has shown the futility of previous Colombian Governments’ mistaken, short-sighted attempts to shut out and turn away from their brothers in Venezuela. We are certain that the normalization of Colombian-Venezuelan relations will help to regulate the migration situation in the region, strengthen border controls and counter transnational organized crime and drug trafficking.”
2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source
“The reactivation of the Commission for the Follow- Up, Promotion and Verification of the Implementation of the Final Agreement has been very significant in coordinating the efforts to implement the Agreement. But as Colombians themselves recognize, there is still a lot of work to be done. Particular attention should be paid to ensuring the security of human rights defenders and former combatants of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, as well as implementing crop-substitution programmes and strengthening State authority at the local level.”
2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source
“We hope that the involvement of United Nations experts and observers in those two areas as an independent party will be an additional factor in ensuring the implementation of the historic agreement of 2016 in good faith. We welcome the decisive commitment of President Petro Urrego’s Administration to the comprehensive implementation of the Final Agreement. The new Colombian authorities have done more in six months for reconciliation in the country than the previous Administration did in four years. We note the progress in the implementation of agrarian reform, the reintegration of former combatants and the advancement of important legislative initiatives that provide legal support to the peacebuilding processes.”
2023-01-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9240 (2023) · source