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

“Ukraine has firmly established itself as a testing ground for military equipment and technologies. After watching Leopard tanks burn in Ukraine, the United States, according to the Asia Times, decided to abandon the M1 Abrams tank in favour of lighter and more compact vehicles. Unlike Ukraine itself, its Western backers are deriving direct gains from the conflict. The Ukrainians, who have become pawns in the geopolitical games of others, are the only losers here. Against that background, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are experiencing serious problems with regard to replenishing their ranks, as their mobilization campaign is stalling.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“Despite formally denying reports from the Israeli military about the discovery of ammunition with the mark of an Armed Forces of Ukraine unit stationed in the city of Mukachevo, in Transcarpathian region, the Security Service of Ukraine conducted searches in Mukachevo the next day and made a series of arrests. No comment, as they say, is necessary. We would not be surprised if weapons from Ukraine were to surface in other hotspots. Against that backdrop, Western arms manufacturers are rubbing their hands with glee. Orders and profits in the American and British military-industrial complex are skyrocketing. In addition, many Western countries are cynically using the current situation to rearm their own militaries, dumping all sorts of hand-me-downs on the Ukrainians.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“For example, just a few days ago, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that weapons that had been transferred from the West to Ukraine had been located on the borders of Israel as early as in the summer of 2023. The fact that weapons are reaching the Middle East via Ukraine through well-known schemes of corruption was essentially confirmed by a representative of the Kyiv regime in this Chamber on Monday (see S/PV.9431), as he proactively yet clumsily tried to shift the blame onto Russia. As we all know, a guilty conscience gives itself away.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“Irresponsible statements about the future of Ukraine in NATO persist, despite it being universally understood that such a scenario will only worsen the European security crisis — the military actions in Ukraine being a direct consequence. Nevertheless, the Western sponsors of the Kyiv regime are attempting in any way they can to play down the ever-louder appeals from civil society in their own countries about how Ukraine, which is mired in corruption, is dealing with the gigantic volumes of weapons transferred to it. More and more evidence is emerging that control over such arms supplies once they have fallen into Kyiv’s hands is weak or completely absent, the results of which are disastrous. The scale of corruption in military supplies in Ukraine is simply off the charts.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“Upon his visit to Brussels, Belgium has also decided to gift Zelenskyy $1.7 billion in assistance for weapons purchases. Incidentally, those funds are tax deductions from interest on Russian assets that have been frozen — or in other words, stolen by the West. Germany announced a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, including IRIS-T surface-launched missiles. The Head of the Pentagon, Mr. Lloyd J. Austin III, stated the need to ensure a constant and uninterrupted flow of weapons to Ukraine, and also announced the formation of some sort of coalition of countries that would help Ukraine to develop its own air force. He is also threatening to start deliveries of F-16 jet fighters beginning in the spring of 2024, as if those were capable of changing anything.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“But the sponsors of the Kyiv regime will not rest. Reserves are now being tapped into and, under the direction of the United States, pulled from other parts of the world, such as Israel and South Korea. However, the military machine of the Kyiv regime continues to collapse before our very eyes. At the same time, Zelenskyy continues to haunt the corridors of Western capitals, persistently begging for fresh handouts. Washington is stooping to various machinations in order to deceive public opinion in the United States and pass the next aid package for Ukraine through Congress. The United Kingdom has supplied Ukraine with Terrahawk Paladin anti-aircraft guns as part of a £100 million aid package, £70 million of which was allocated for air defence.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“Der Spiegel writes that Kyiv has become the main importer of ammunition and hardware from Germany. Over the first nine months of the year, more than a third of Germany’s military exports went to Ukraine, representing $3.3 billion. Furthermore, the Kyiv regime has at least 13 foreign private military companies and nine militarized proxy formations — almost 1,000 well-armed and -trained fighters from 35 countries. I underscore that Russia is countering not the Armed Forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost depleted, but the collective military machine of NATO countries and all their military-industrial complexes combined. It has reached the point where, through their irrepressible fuelling of Kyiv’s ambitions, many Western European countries have already almost fully depleted their arsenals of ammunition and small arms.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“However, there are no sensible substantive proposals from our former Western partners that would actually help to find a peaceful solution. We have not heard any such proposals in any of the previous meetings. Instead, all we get is baseless accusatory rhetoric against our country, while the issues that are uncomfortable for our former Western partners are carefully ignored or swept under the rug. Therefore, in this statement, we would like to touch upon some items that are uncomfortable for our former Western colleagues, whose cynicism today is astonishing. Mr. Nixon already quoted Lindsey Graham today, and I would like to quote the Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren, who, on 4 November explicitly stated that Ukrainian was a “cheap way” of countering Russia.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): First and foremost, we would like to thank Mr. Ebo and Mr. Nixon for their substantive briefings. With astonishing tenacity, which deserves better use, our Western colleagues convene meetings every month on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, hypocritically calling for a swift cessation of hostilities, which, in their understanding, is possible only with the de facto defeat of Russia. In fact, de facto, they continue to do the exact opposite. They are pumping Ukraine with various types of weapons and are dissuading the Kyiv regime from realistic scenarios to settle the Ukrainian crisis. The volume of Western assistance to Ukraine continues to break all records. If we were to tackle this issue seriously, we could have our meetings every day, with new developments at every occasion.”
2023-10-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9436 (2023) · source
“Within the framework of the Security Council, Russia will continue to actively participate in international efforts to provide assistance to the peacebuilding processes in Colombia. We reaffirm our full support for the work of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia under the leadership of Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu, and we are prepared to give positive consideration to extending the Mission’s comprehensive mandate this month.”
2023-10-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9434 (2023) · source
“We hope, as progress is made in the peace talks with other groups, that those agreements will lead to a decrease in violence on the ground and an improvement of the humanitarian situation in the affected areas. We are following the negotiation process with the Estado Mayor Central Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (EMC FARC-EP) illegal armed group. We welcome the start of a nationwide reconciliation programme and the formal launching of a dialogue with the group. At the same time, we are concerned about the continuing incidents of armed violence by the EMC FARC-EP. We hope that both sides will nonetheless be able to find a path to reconciliation.”
2023-10-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9434 (2023) · source
“It is important that all the decisions taken on the new peacebuilding tracks do not contradict that fundamental document. Furthermore, the institutions and agreements that were established for the implementation of the peace agreement can and should be updated in accordance with changing realities. In particular, there is the question of the future role of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in the context of the numerous peace processes under way. We welcome the start of the work of the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism, with the assistance of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, to verify the ceasefire agreement with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional.”
2023-10-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9434 (2023) · source
“Without clear security guarantees for former combatants, it is impossible to speak of a durable implementation of the peace agreement. That is particularly important in the context of the upcoming department and municipal elections, in which former rebels must be able to participate without fear for their lives. We view Bogotá’s recent peacebuilding initiatives as a logical next step in implementing the provisions of the peace agreement. We see the “total peace” policy of the Government of Gustavo Petro Urrego as an opportunity to resolve the pressing problems impeding Colombia’s exit from this protracted armed conflict. At the same time, we are convinced that the total peace can and must be built on nothing other than the previously laid foundations of the peace agreement.”
2023-10-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9434 (2023) · source
“We note the consistent work of the Colombian leadership in that regard, in particular in the implementation of land reform. Nevertheless, additional efforts are required to ensure the physical security and respect for the human rights of former combatants, social activists and the most vulnerable segments of the population, as well as to implement the illicit crop substitution programme, strengthen State authority on the ground and provide housing for former participants in the conflict. On a separate note, we underscore the need to stop the violence against former Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo members. More than 30 signatories of the peace agreement have been killed in this year alone, which is an average of one murder a week.”
2023-10-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9434 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We welcome the participation in today’s discussion of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Mr. Álvaro Leyva Durán. We thank the briefers for their briefings. The 2016 Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace is approaching its seventh anniversary, nearly halfway through the time allotted for its implementation. Over that period, the implementation of the agreement approved by the Security Council has faced numerous challenges. The previous Colombian Administration effectively sabotaged the peace process. It is encouraging that both parties to the peace agreement are now committed to its implementation and are working together for reconciliation in the country.”
2023-10-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9434 (2023) · source
“The task of our Western colleagues is to cover up — by hook or by crook — the Kyiv regime, to which they have given carte blanche for any crimes and violations of human rights since 2014 and which they are helping today with weapons, ammunition and intelligence, trying in vain to delay its inglorious end. We will talk about that in detail at the meeting we requested for 13 October. Our special military operation seeks to stop the regime’s bloody war against the civilian population of Donbas. We will be implementing that goal through military means if Kyiv and its Western backers do not agree to a resolution through peaceful means.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“Our American colleague spoke about the funeral ceremony in Hroza. Does he by any chance want to recall the wedding in Iraq shelled by valiant American forces, or numerous other crimes of the American military against civilians in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia? It seems that the main phobia of our American colleagues today is the election of Russia to the Human Rights Council. It is no coincidence that, as we all see perfectly well, it is the Americans who are leading a campaign in favour of our competitor, Albania, having finally discarded their masks, deviating from the basic standards of courtesy and unashamedly using the platform of the Security Council to agitate others against Russia.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“On Friday they blocked our proposed draft Security Council press statement in connection with the terrorist attack on the graduation ceremony at the military academy in the Syrian city of Homs, in which more than 100 people died?. That attack, incidentally, was carried out through the use of French-made drones. Similarly, Western pseudo-human rights defenders do not notice the regular strikes of the Ukrainian armed forces on peaceful areas of the cities of Donbas, Zaporizhzhya and the Kherson region, where there are no military installations. Such strikes have also long been carried out with Western weapons, since the Ukrainian Armed Forces have long run out of their own. There has not been a single meeting of the Security Council convened by the Western members of the Council on such occasions. They simply do not notice them.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“But the placement of heavy equipment and air defence systems in residential areas is a gross violation of international humanitarian law and leads to the types of tragedies that we have talked about today. We once again underscore that Russia does not carry out strikes against civilian objects and does not target civilians. Our high-precision weapons are used exclusively to destroy the military capacity of the Zelenskyy regime and related objects. And if Ukraine is using granaries and port infrastructure to store ammunition and Western equipment, then they too will be destroyed. We also must note that even as they highlight the victims of the attack on the village of Hroza and call for its condemnation, our cynical Western colleagues do not notice anything happening in other parts of the world.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“Of course, his neo-Nazi accomplices were in attendance. It is no coincidence that, in the photographs published on social networks immediately after the strike, the majority of the bodies belong to men of military age. We have already seen such situations many times. The Kyiv regime wrung its hands over civilians killed as a result of attacks on hotels, dormitories, cafés, shops and other places and then a large number of obituaries of foreign mercenaries and soldiers appeared. What a coincidence. We are certain that will also occur with Hroza. We remind the Council that if the Kyiv regime concentrates military personnel in a certain place, it becomes a legitimate target for a strike, including from the point of view of international humanitarian law.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“And now, the tragedy in the village of Hroza, which became the reason for today’s meeting, occurred exactly at the moment when Zelenskyy was convincing the European Union to extend support to the Kyiv regime at the EU summit in Spain. Word on the street among Ukrainians is that they also have to beware of not only Ukrainian air defence missiles, but also Zelenskyy’s foreign visits and visitors. Immediately after those events, the Ukrainian delegation demanded the convening of a meeting of the Security Council, and Western countries pushed the Council to meet immediately. If we return to the incident in the village of Hroza, there are a number of points that immediately leap out. As we know, at the time of the strike, there was a funeral being held there for one of the high-ranking Ukrainian nationalists.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“There is another common thread that runs through most of these episodes, mainly the most high-profile incidents. By magical happenstance, they coincided precisely with the visits of high-ranking Western politicians to Ukraine or when Zelenskyy went abroad to beg for money or weapons. That was the case with the strike on the market in Kostiantynivka on the eve of Zelenskyy’s meeting with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on 6 September. A similarly monstrous strike, on Kramatorsk, was dealt on the day of the visit of the EU delegation, led by Mr. Borrell Fontelles and Mrs. Von Der Leyen, on 8 April 2022. They also tried to convince a high-level African delegation of the danger of Russian attacks on Kyiv, with the help of a theatrical production that included blaring sirens.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“It is also worth recalling how the Kyiv regime tried in every possible way to spin for its own purposes the episode with the fall of a rocket in the Polish village of Przewodów in November 2022, which killed two people. It called the incident an attack on a NATO member State, trying to provoke the alliance to retaliate, going as far as invoking article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. But at the end of August, Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro drew a line under this incident, officially confirming the obvious — it was a Ukrainian missile that fell on the Polish village. We could cite dozens of similar episodes, in each of which the Ukrainian Government tries to shift the blame to Russia for attacking civilian targets, after which the Kyiv regime’s narrative was exposed as a lie.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“They are documented and published on social networks by the Ukrainians themselves, thus leaving Zelenskyy and his clique no chance to deceive the public. Of course, another vile provocation pertains to Bucha, which was never properly investigated. Neither did the Secretary-General ever provide us with the names of the unfortunate people whose bodies were neatly laid out on the streets by Ukrainian fighters after the withdrawal of Russian troops as a gesture of goodwill, against the backdrop of the successful peace negotiations under way in Istanbul. By the way, the Kyiv regime withdrew from those negotiations, including under pretext of a provocation it organized.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“As part of this meeting in the Security Council, we have already listened to ignominious insinuations about a missile attack on the Kramatorsk station in April 2022, which, as everyone now knows — and this is documented — was carried out by the Ukrainian armed forces, about the destruction of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, which was hit by a Ukrainian air defence missile, the explosion of a drama theatre in Mariupol, blown up — as is now absolutely clear — by Azov Battalion fighters, and the destruction of a maternity hospital in the same city, repurposed by Ukrainian nationalists as a firing point. Cases of Ukrainian air defence missiles hitting civilian targets number in the dozens, if not hundreds.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“Or, what is even worse, they are doing it deliberately, becoming accomplices in this unprecedented propaganda and mendacious anti-Russian campaign. Unfortunately, the Secretariat also plays along sometimes. The representative of the Secretariat also rushed to blame Russia, during the meeting I just mentioned, for the attack on Kostiantynivka. We all know where the information comes from and on the basis of what the Secretariat makes such conclusions.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“Today we know clearly that the massacre in Kostiantynivka was organized by Ukraine, either through another blunder of its missile defence or a deliberate missile launching against a civilian target. It would be nice, of course, to find out, but of course the Kyiv regime does not intend to conduct an investigation. That follows directly from the words of Mr. Podolyak, Adviser to the President of Ukraine: “It is clear to us that the missile was Russian. Do we have to check every piece of rubble simply because someone came out and said that Ukraine is attacking itself?” Do my Western colleagues not understand that the Kyiv junta is simply using them and retransmitting fake news through them, which is then convincingly debunked?”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“Then Western colleagues waxed lyrical, detailing what happened in every which way. For example, the British Permanent Representative began her statement by saying: “Let me first condemn another appalling Russian missile attack earlier this week on a market in Kostyantynivka, in eastern Ukraine.” ThePermanentRepresentativeof France did not far much better, stating: “Russia continues to disregard international law and relentlessly and intentionally bomb cities and civilian infrastructure, which constitute war crimes. The recent attack on the Kostiantynivka market ... further attests to that.” I will not even mention the Estonians, Poles and the like. They will take every opportunity to exercise their Russophobia. All of those accusations against our country are reflected in the record of the meeting I just mentioned.”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): I would like to start by once again expressing my bewilderment at the presence at our meeting as speakers not only of the representative of the European Union (EU), but also the representatives of Czechia, Romania, Poland and Latvia. I would also like to ask a question. What added value will we obtain from their statements, being carbon copies of one another? We have already mentioned this many times. I would be interested to know how many EU members will sign up for the meeting we are organizing on 13 October on arms transfers to Ukraine, a topic to which they are directly related. A month ago, on 8 September, in this very Chamber, a previous anti-Russian spectacle played out in connection with our alleged attack on a market in the town of Kostiantynivka (see S/PV.9414).”
2023-10-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9431 (2023) · source
“We wish Nairobi successful preparations in composing and deploying the forces. We await the detailed information on the Mission that was requested in the resolution.”
2023-10-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9430 (2023) · source
“We would nevertheless like to highlight some positive elements of the resolution, including the call to all Haitian political forces to reach a broad consensus through a dialogue, with the assistance of the United Nations and the Caribbean Community, and the expansion of the arms embargo to all actors not operating under State auspices or with the Organization’s approval. In particular, we hope it will help to significantly reduce the illegal flow of weapons to the island and shed light on smuggling sources and routes. We hope that the Mission that has been authorized will help to stabilize the situation in Haiti as soon as possible, while respecting the country’s sovereignty and the rights of its people. Any interference in internal political processes by external forces is unacceptable.”
2023-10-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9430 (2023) · source
“As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia cannot agree to what is essentially a blind invocation of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. Haiti has historically experienced an enormous amount of irresponsible foreign interference, which is precisely what gave rise to the downward spiral that Haitians have been unable to overcome for years. Authorizing yet another instance of the use of force in Haiti without a precise understanding of the parameters of the Mission being authorized is short- sighted. Moreover, the Security Council should approve the concept of operations rather than be presented with it after the fact.”
2023-10-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9430 (2023) · source
“However, during the planning of the Mission and the preparation of the corresponding resolution, we found that our perfectly fair requests for more detailed information about the concept of operations, the modalities for the use of force and the contingent’s withdrawal strategy went unanswered. We also got the feeling that attempts were being made to hastily confer United Nations legitimacy on a non-United Nations mission with the help of a decision by the Council that was not fully thought through or calibrated. We all realize that authorizing an operation under Chapter VII is an extremely serious step that requires a full acknowledgement of the responsibility for it and its possible consequences. Unfortunately, we did not feel confident of that during the negotiations on the draft.”
2023-10-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9430 (2023) · source
“Against the backdrop of the authorities’ powerlessness and the national police’s limited capacities, the violence in Haiti has reached a level that has compelled Port-au- Prince itself to ask the international community for armed assistance. Considering that request, along with the appeals from the Secretary-General, the opinions of countries in the region and the willingness of Kenya to lead such an international mission, we have no objections in principle against the initiative as such. Nonetheless, it must be understood that sending the armed forces of another State to any country, even at that country’s request, is an extreme measure that must be thoroughly thought through.”
2023-10-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9430 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): At the outset, we congratulate Brazil on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for October and hope it will be a successful one. We welcome the presence at today’s meeting of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Haiti. The Russian Federation abstained in the voting on resolution 2699 (2023), drafted by Ecuador and the United States, authorizing the Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti. At the same time, we are fully aware of the scale and urgency of the security problems that Haiti is facing. We have consistently advocated for offering it responsible international assistance while taking into account the opinions of the widest possible cross-section of Haitian society.”
2023-10-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9430 (2023) · source
“It is time for Brussels to stop blaming smugglers for people’s deaths and to shoulder its responsibility rather than limiting itself to paying lip service to the tragedy of the lives lost among yet another group of migrants and refugees.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“Moreover, the mass exodus of people from the Near East and North Africa region to Europe is a consequence of the irresponsible and thoughtless intervention of Western countries, including the European Union, in the internal affairs of sovereign States in order to destabilize them and remove undesirable Governments by force. Those countries bear the primary responsibility for such consequences. However, the European Union is thus far essentially dealing only with migration issues in relation to Ukrainians. Citizens from the countries of North Africa and the Near East obviously cannot count on a similar level of solidarity, or indeed humane treatment in general, from Europeans.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“We are left with the impression that the European Union is waging an undeclared war on migrants, who are dying because no safe alternative routes exist. How does that correlate with resolution 2240 (2015)? Even those few migrants and refugees who are fortunate enough to reach European shores safely face harsh and inhumane treatment, detention and deportation, regardless of their circumstances or status. Let us recall here that extending assistance to migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons today is an important component of efforts aimed at maintaining peace, security and stability. Member States should adhere firmly to their international obligations regarding refugees, internally displaced persons and stateless persons under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereto.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“I would like to recall here that conducting operations involving the use of force on the high seas is authorized by the relevant Security Council resolution, and Council members should receive comprehensive and exhaustive information about the results. The Secretary-General’s report does not provide any such information. At the same time, it would seem that European Union authorities interpret resolution 2240 (2015) solely as an “indulgence” permitting the harsh suppression of illegal migratory flows. Moreover, as we can see from the recently announced plan of the European Union, there are plans to reinforce and expand the scope of the so- called maritime operations in the Mediterranean, which journalists and human rights advocates have already labelled a naval blockade.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“Despite the assurances provided by European colleagues, it is obvious that the activities conducted by European bodies that use the mandate of resolution 2240 (2015) on combating the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings are not yielding tangible results in terms of suppressing smuggling. According to the report, most of the criminals avoid arrest, including through corruption. Such criminal activity continues to flourish. The next question that arises is what measures are being undertaken by European Union countries to rescue people at sea as part of Operation Irini. I ask because, according to the report, the vast majority of migrants and refugees at sea were rescued or intercepted by other forces and structures about which nothing is known.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“Those who all the same dare to do so face criminal prosecution and can be accused of human trafficking. Furthermore, and as we can see in the Secretary-General’s report, some European Union vessels intentionally try to push back vessels in distress out of their jurisdiction, condemning people to an agonizing death. In other words, everything is being done, as Mr. Borrell Fontelles said, to protect one’s own blooming garden from the guests from the jungle. We would like to put a direct question to our European colleagues: are they generally conducting investigations of cases in which assistance was not provided by the European border services to migrants in distress, and are they prepared to share that information with other Council members?”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“Clearly, the mechanism provided for by resolution 2240 (2015) and subsequent Security Council resolutions is not working, or, at the very least, is extremely ineffective. It is therefore legitimate to ask why we need this resolution, if the European Union is incapable of properly carrying out the functions set out in the resolution, which were assigned to it at its own request. It is obvious that those tragedies would not have happened had timely assistance been extended to those in distress at sea, as required by both international law and mere humanity. However, in most cases, rescuing drowning people is not a priority. Furthermore, it is often the case that European Union member States not only do not take measures to rescue the vessel, but actually forbid other vessels to come to the rescue of those in distress.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“In fact, the number of victims has doubled in a year, and the overall number of dead or missing at sea over the past six years is in excess of 23,000 — migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, including women and children, whose protection is expressly provided for under international law. What we see here is a very sordid picture. We would like to state that, year in year out, the Mediterranean Sea remains the most dangerous migration route, with the highest mortality rate, and is becoming a death trap for many desperate people. This year alone, we witnessed horrific tragedies off the coast of Greece on 14 June, when 78 people died and approximately 750 people went missing, and off the coast of Italy on 28 February, when 81 migrants, including 33 children, died.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“Mr. Nebenzia (Russian Federation) (spoke in Russian): We thank the representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in New York and the International Organization for Migration for their assessments of the situation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers who attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of refuge. We requested today’s meeting after reading the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of resolution 2652 (2022) covering the period from August 2022 to July 2023 (S/2023/640). According to the report, 3,111 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach European shores. This year, there was a 77 per cent increase in the number of deaths at sea compared to the previous period.”
2023-09-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9428 (2023) · source
“In that context, we support all the relevant practical initiatives, in particular, that of organizing a visit of Secretary-General Guterres to the region, as well as the steps taken by the Palestinians themselves to defend their inalienable rights to their own State and to become a full member of the United Nations.”
2023-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9425 (2023) · source
“Washington’s actions nullify the prospects for reviving direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis on all final-status issues on the basis of the universally recognized framework for the Middle East peace process, the central element of which is the two- State solution, which we have consistently supported. In the current circumstances, it is important to continue efforts to maintain the necessary international attention to the developments on the ground in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and to not allow the international legal basis for a peaceful settlement to be undermined. Russia is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian State on the basis of the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Our position is consistent and will not change owing to any opportunistic calculations.”
2023-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9425 (2023) · source
“The continuing deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, with a vacuum in the negotiations track and the absence of any prospects for a Middle East peace process, is undoubtedly a cause for concern for us. In the context of the de facto dismantling of the universally recognized international legal basis for a peace settlement, the United States continues to promote Arab-Israeli normalization, circumventing the logic of the Arab Peace Initiative, put forward by Saudi Arabia in 2002, which envisages a resolution of the Palestinian issue first, and then, only after that is achieved, the restoration of relations with Israel.”
2023-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9425 (2023) · source
“In parallel, the Government of Israel has approved and funded a plan to preserve Israeli archaeological sites in Area C in order to “strengthen the Jewish roots in Judea and Samaria”. Meanwhile, Israeli radicals are making provocative visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on a near- daily basis, and more than 1,200 Palestinians are in administrative detention in Israeli prisons. Of particular concern is the increase in violence against minors — more than 40 Palestinian children have been killed since the beginning of the year — and the demolition of educational institutions, including some that were built with donor funds.”
2023-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9425 (2023) · source
“Since the beginning of this year, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has recorded some 600 settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, which have occurred against the backdrop of the Israeli leadership’s plans to increase the number of Israelis living in the northern West Bank from the current 170,000 to 1 million by 2050, with an estimated $200 million allocated for that illegal activity. Furthermore, the Israeli authorities decided to simplify the administrative procedures required to approve the construction of more than 4,500 housing units in the West Bank, in violation of the provisions of the relevant decisions of the Council and international law.”
2023-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9425 (2023) · source
“It is once again clear that the continuing explosive situation is a direct consequence of Israel’s aggressive illegal actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, including violent raids, arbitrary arrests, settler extremism and unprecedented settlement expansion, coupled with forced evictions of Palestinian families, the confiscation of their property, the legalization of settlement outposts and violations of the status quo of the holy sites of Jerusalem.”
2023-09-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9425 (2023) · source