Russia criticizes UN Security Council's session on Ukraine amid ongoing Gaza crisis

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) – Russia's Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia on Tuesday criticized the UN Security Council for holding a high-level session on Ukraine amid escalating crisis in the Gaza Strip.

"Though a horrific military campaign is underway in Gaza and the Security Council is not able achieve a cease-fire there, westerns members of this Council are instead focused on the public relations benefit of the expired (presidential term) Ukrainian President (Volodymyr Zelenskyy)," Nebenzia told the Security Council.

Nebenzia recalled UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' previous remarks on the situation in Gaza, stating that it is "unprecedented."

Voicing concern over the situation in Gaza, where nearly 42,000 people have been killed, the Russian envoy said: "Despite all of this, the UN Security Council has for nearly one year not been able to achieve a cease-fire... This is due to the position of a single permanent member of the Security Council (US) who cast a veto five times."

He accused Ukraine of "sabotaging" the Minsk agreements and told the Council that "the Ukrainian army today is on the verge of complete collapse."

Nebenzia said Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is "playing a role of the cool guy, the West's ally and something even of a savior of all humankind against the Russian threat."

Nebenzia claimed that Zelenskyy failed to keep his "promises" to the Ukrainian people after being elected president, saying, "We can see how he gradually betrayed the Ukrainian people and destroyed their statehood for the advancement of the interests of Western sponsors."

Russia is not fighting the Ukrainian people but rather the "Kyiv regime," he said, adding: "Russian Federation was always ready to live in peace and good neighbor relations with Ukraine until it was shaped into aggressive, Russophobe, neo-Nazi wasp nest threatening our security."

He pledged that Russia will continue its “special operation” in Ukraine until "its objectives are met militarily and there is no other way towards peace."

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, for his part, expressed his dismay about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying that prospect of peace is still a long way off.

The continuation of the Russia-Ukraine war causes more suffering for people "and more volatility in the world," Yi said, adding that “the situation is not sustainable and must be turned around. All parties must take people as the priority."

He proposed three principles for ending the war – no battlefield expansion, no escalation of fighting, and no further provocations by any of the parties.

The Chinese foreign minister criticized the West for sending weapons to Ukraine, saying it makes achieving a cease-fire more difficult.

Yi urged people to abandon the "Cold War mentality," saying that dialogue and negotiation are the only ways to end the war.