Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC Briefing on Ukraine
Madam President,
Once again today, in addition to the representative of the European Union, we can see among the speakers the representatives of EU countries – Finland, Poland and Estonia – who seem to have been called upon to make an “invaluable contribution” to today's discussion. But we believe that this is an impossible mission for them. As we have already seen on numerous occasions, they are unable to bring any added value to the discussion. We do not see a long queue of EU countries rushing to sign up for the meeting on Ukraine that we convene.
Madam President,
We have seen time and again that when convening meetings like today's one, our Western colleagues pursue the sole purpose of keeping the Ukrainian issue artificially afloat in the Security Council, thus demonstrating in public that they support their rapidly bankrupting anti-Russian project in Ukraine. If they really wanted to focus our attention on the problems generated by the Ukrainian crisis, their statements would be entirely different, and they would contain at least some truth about what is happening, rather than a mere set of hackneyed accusations against Russia.
And, in fact, there are indeed a great many problems. The main one is the continued feeding of the Kiev regime with weapons, hardware, mercenaries and intelligence, and this is precisely the issue we are going to discuss during a separate meeting on October 31. It is hard to say what drives our Western colleagues. Is it largely pure greed, since the hostilities in Ukraine bring them billions of dollars? Or is it a mere reluctance to admit their mistakes, including those made back at a stage when they were only “modelling” the Ukrainian crisis?
Another block of problems can be described with the insightful words by Polish President Andrzej Duda. He said that Ukraine, like a drowning person, is dragging down to the depth those who are trying to help it. And it is not even a question of Europe rapidly losing its economic and political heft and increasingly turning into a “tiddler” – this is an intra-European problem caused by a conscious erroneous choice of European elites in favor of confrontation rather than cooperation with Russia. The problem is that the expired Ukrainian president, who is clearly suffering a defeat on the battlefield, is now openly betting exclusively on dragging NATO into a direct, rather than a proxy conflict with a nuclear power. And he has no scruples about resorting to open blackmailing in doing so.
We saw a clear manifestation of this last week, when Zelensky unveiled his latest pseudo-peace plan, the so-called “victory plan”, the essence of which is to push the West to enter into a direct military confrontation with Russia, which, as we all understand, could lead to a global conflict. We have repeatedly said that the overweening head of the Kiev clique has nothing to lose, and in his desire to retain power at any cost he is ready to plunge the entire world into the abyss of nuclear apocalypse. This is his “plan B”, which he is now trying to present as a “victory plan”.
As has been noticed with disappointment by many sensible western politicians and experts, Zelensky's newly thought-up master plan lacks a strategic component that would allow NATO and Ukraine to turn the course of hostilities in their favor. This is hardly surprising, because no such a means exists and the complete defeat of the Ukrainian armed forces on the battlefield is only a matter of time. And the head of the Kiev regime is devoid of any military talent, and his “Kursk adventure” has proved that most convincingly.
It also demonstrated Zelensky's willingness to sacrifice without hesitation Ukraine and the lives of Ukrainians for the sake of western geopolitical interests, which he unambiguously interprets as solely aimed at inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield. At the same time, he promotes an open and blatant betrayal of the national interests of his own country. Thus, the so-called “peace plan” openly declares his readiness to sell off the rest of Ukraine's natural resources (which, by the way, would require a referendum under the Ukrainian Constitution) and to use its citizens in the future to guard the security of Europe in place of American troops.
But what is absent from Zelensky's latest “screenplay” is even a hint at a willingness to step on the path of a genuine and long-term peace settlement of the conflict. He remains convinced, as was the case with his previous stillborn initiatives, that the West together with him must develop some kind of ultimatum plan and then impose it on Russia. How can such thinking be explained? Probably, it is the regular use of strong narcotics. We have no other explanation. Kiev can hardly hope for a better formula than that the Russian President's proposed in June. But that opportunity was basically ruled out with the beginning of the Kursk incursion by the Ukrainian army. Hence, the only remaining “trump card” for the Kiev leader is to provoke a direct clash between Russia and NATO.
The notorious pseudo-peace plan has this idea embodied primarily in the form of yet another demand for Ukraine's admission to NATO. Lest anyone have any illusions, I would like to immediately reaffirm that Ukraine's membership of the North Atlantic Alliance in any territorial form is absolutely unacceptable to Russia and cannot be part of any peace plans or mediation initiatives. We have developed and are ready to continue to develop good-neighborly relations with a neutral, non-block affiliated Ukraine, as it was enshrined in its Constitution and our bilateral treaties. However, this provision, which is a cornerstone for Ukraine's security, was gradually repealed after the 2014 anti-constitutional coup, which was inspired by the US and its allies. And all that has finally cemented the course on that country's sliding into the mire of crisis, lawlessness, extreme nationalism and civil war.
Madam President,
It is not even the latest “Zelensky plan” itself that deserves the closest attention by the Council members – apart from what I have mentioned, this plan contains nothing but calls for “material assistance”. The Council’s attention should be paid instead to what the Kiev leader said while presenting his “pet project” in Europe. In particular, I’m referring to what he said on October 17 – as an inveterate blackmailer, the head of the Kiev regime declared his intention to create nuclear weapons if his country is not admitted to NATO. Thus, in essence, contemporary Ukraine publicly declared its intention to violate its obligations under the NPT, the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA and its Additional Protocol to it.
In other words, this is an open declaration by a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the NPT of its intention to violate Article 2 of the Treaty, which could lead to an extremely serious international crisis in the area of nuclear non-proliferation. We are convinced that all members of the Security Council and the entire international community must firmly condemn these irresponsible statements. So far, there has been no public response from the United States and its allies to this obvious challenge to the non-proliferation regime, which only confirms their condoning of any adventures and crimes committed by the Kiev regime. Instead of this, they have become engrossed in replicating scaremongering stories about Iranian, Chinese and Korean “bogeymen,” with each new story sounding even more ridiculous than the one before.
This situation around nuclear blackmailing from the head of the Kiev regime, who have lost his legitimacy, once again demonstrates that Russia’s decision to begin its special military operation – which was made, by the way, following similar nuclear threats from the Ukrainian leadership – was the only right thing to do. Security threats to our country cannot be eliminated without the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, and without ensuring that the rights and freedoms of all Ukrainian citizens are observed.
Madam President,
In conclusion, I would like to touch upon another important topic related to human rights and civil freedoms in Ukraine. As you know, our western colleagues tend to present the Kiev regime and its leader as a guardian of democracy and an example for the entire region. At the same time, Ukraine's Western curators are turning a blind eye to the fact that the brutal dictatorship has established in Ukraine, which led to the delegitimization of state institutions there, thousands of political prisoners, a ban on the Russian language and Russian identity (which is a clear violation of the country's Constitution and basic norms of international law), and the persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church. With such selective blindness, the West is unlikely to say anything about the outrageous seizure of the St. Michael Cathedral, which took place last week in Cherkassy in circumvention of the basic norms of morality of any religion.
We warned that Ukraine’s adoption of a law that contradicts international law and the UN Charter to ban the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church will soon be followed by raids on churches and violence against parishioners. That’s exactly what happened. On October 17, the Banderites committed another grave crime. More than a hundred militants in camouflage and balaclavas forced their way into the cathedral; they opened fire on civilians, used teargas and drove the believers out of the service. On the Internet, you can find hundreds of videos of this banditry. After that, they started looting: they looted the accounting department, they stole the money that parishioners had gathered to restore the cathedral, they took out equipment, icons, church books, and even food. The police were present but did not interfere in the situation.
As a result of the attackers' actions, Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkassy and Kanevsky received a concussion. The mayor of the city cynically called the incident a “voluntary transfer” of the community to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – this is the level of moral degradation that the Ukrainian society, or rather part of it, has achieved. We call on the relevant organizations of the UN system to unequivocally condemn the persecution of Orthodox believers by Kiev’s neo-Nazis, and urge the West to stop encouraging Kiev to pursue this barbaric policy. Our western colleagues need to understand that the responsibility for the actions of the regime they have nurtured lies on their shoulders, and they will not be able to conceal these crimes from their own public.
Thank you for your attention.
