Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Remarks by Ambassador Vassily A. Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, following the opening ceremony of the exhibition “Russian scientists who changed the world”

Q: Can you say something about the Ukrainian resolution?

A: We had a busy day this morning in the Security Council. We adopted two PRSTs and one resolution, PRST on Libya and PRST on Ukraine. It has been a long time since the Council adopted anything on Ukraine and we are very happy that we managed to come up together with a PRST on Ukraine, which is very constructive, which confirms the validity and importance of the Minsk agreements, which is the only platform to reach political settlement in Ukraine and it is especially important today when the Minsk agreements are being sabotaged by some parties. The resolute reconfirmation of them by the Security Council is very important.

Q: What about a peacekeeping mission after the Minsk agreements began to be carried out?

A: The Minsk agreements are a kind of provisions which is very concrete, specific and sequential. They have to be implemented one by one. If any peacekeeping mission in Ukraine that is agreed by consensus by members of the Security Council would help implement the Minsk agreements, it is fine. In our view the peacekeeping mission that we proposed could be an instrument to implement Minsk agreements whilst some other parties are proposing peacekeeping mission which would substitute the Minsk agreements, so that is the major problem.

Q: The PRST doesn’t mention the day that the parties agreed to meet. We hear that there was some disagreement among Council members about the day. How important is it that the Council is backing the elections in Libya?

A: I’m not aware. It is important, that the Council is united in that. As on Ukraine and many other matters that Council adopts unanimously. Secondly, that is a strong message to all Libyan parties that should engage here and to work for elections, which are an important milestone in rebuilding Libya. There is a specific mentioning of those partieswhich pretend to represent some Libyan parties but stay outside of those agreements. So the message is very clear.