Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

Mister President, distinguished members of the Security Council, Madam Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo, Madam Under-Secretary-General Nakamitsu,
I should also acknowledge the presence of a separate category here – a representative of the aggressor state, who is in the seat of the Soviet Union in the Security Council; the status of which was recognized by the GA Resolution ES-11/1 (“Aggression against Ukraine”), and that is the status of “aggressor state”.
There is already a long record of Russian lies, established here in the Council. The recollection of the items of lies over the last two weeks alone will take perhaps an hour or so.
But let me mention just a couple of the lowest of the low of them. And I would not hesitate to mention them again after the Representative sitting in the Soviet seat has just talked referring to them. Let me quote his kingpin – Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who said yesterday indeed: “We do not plan to attack other countries, we did not attack Ukraine either”.
An outlet of Russian lies – the Russian Embassy in London – tweeted yesterday that a pregnant woman in the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol was wearing makeup and was playing multiple roles of pregnant women. Indeed, Moscow and the Russian Ambassador here are struggling to get this story straight. The Kremlin’s spokesman Peskov told Reuters in the immediate aftermath of the strike on Wednesday that “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets”, on Thursday he told reporters that the Kremlin would look into the incident, “because you and I don’t have clear information on what happened there”; following a meeting with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister in Turkey on Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov took a different stance, as he claimed without evidence that the hospital in Mariupol was a warranted target, because the building had been seized long ago by Ukrainian armed groups.
Let me share with you some very good news. Ms. Marianna (the pregnant woman) gave birth to a healthy daughter last night. Her name is Veronika. Here she is with her father. No matter what Russian lies are about herself, her family and the incident.
Mister President,
Whatever the gentleman in the Soviet seat may say in reply is most probably useless. We need to hear directly from the mastermind of the war crimes, committed so far. As we established that he was out of the loop on many occasions having no clue what was going on on the ground.
We know quite well that the manic obsession with which Putin fantasizes about non-existent biological or chemical weapons or hazards in Ukraine is very dangerous. It may actually point at Russia preparing another horrific false flag operation.
So, what else are you going to use against Ukraine? Cruise missiles, multiple rocket launchers, heavy aerial bombs – we have already experienced all of these. What is next? Ammonia, phosphorus? And what will be the next target? One more residential building? One more maternity hospital? One more school? Or maybe one more cultural heritage site? Russian troops have already hit all these sites. All of them.
By calling this meeting the aggressor state has shot itself in the foot once again. Ukraine runs a health system that is totally in full compliance with its international obligations, and in full cooperation with all relevant international organizations. The rest is a bunch of insane delirium from Putin and his henchmen, including the Russian Mission to the UN.
Russia does not give a monkey’s about the safety of its own citizens, including thousands of decomposing bodies of Russian soldiers – soldiers sent by Putin to Ukraine, to this ongoing carnage.
I regret that the Security Council is now being manipulated by the Russian Federation to promote such insane delirium. It is utmost disregard by the Russian Federation of the members of the Security Council. Finally, it is detrimental to the Council’s credibility.
What indeed has to be addressed by the Council are the war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Russian Federation has been committing on a daily basis since 24 February 2022. The day when the war in Europe, unleashed by Russia, started.
Among the most recent examples that shocked the world - the Russian airstrike that destroyed the maternity hospital, that we already mentioned so many times today.
Russian indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes have almost destroyed Mariupol – one of the most beautiful cities on the Azov Sea – and killed 1582 civilian residents of that city, according to the local administration. For the first time since World War II people are being buried in mass graves in Ukrainian cities.
I would like to use this opportunity to ask the gentleman in the Soviet seat: if you are really connected (wired) to Moscow, please ask Moscow to release the kidnapped mayor of the city of Melitopol. Please, help us to get him back from the arms of invaders.
Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Izyum, Okhtyrka, Volnovakha and many other Ukrainian cities are being razed to the ground. Documents and maps seized by Ukrainian troops from Russian prisoners of war confirm that bombardments of residential areas had been planned in advance. Captured Russian pilots at today’s press-conference in Kyiv have reconfirmed that they deliberately dropped the bombs on residential areas. The number of civilians killed by the Russian troops exceeds military losses.
Many people have lost their homes. More than 1.5 million left Ukraine (almost 2 mln by now) across the Western border. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions became IDPs. Only from Kharkiv alone, six hundred thousand people were evacuated by trains.
The main efforts are now focused on ensuring safe passage of civilians through humanitarian corridors. Unfortunately, the arrangements are often violated by the Russian troops. Awful pictures and footage, taken near the destroyed bridge in Irpin, with killed civilians, including entire families, who tried to flee the occupied areas, have circled and horrified the globe.
Russia must not use civilians as hostages and human shield. By exposing cities to indiscriminate shelling and creating a dire humanitarian situation, deliberately shelling civilians during evacuation from the besieged Ukrainian cities, Russia is forcing civilians to flee their homes and providing only a corridor to its territory or to Belarus. So called “green corridors” proposed by the aggressor for sending people to Russia and Belarus could be considered as forcible deportation of protected persons according to international humanitarian law.
Mr. President,
Ukrainian people are being killed and Ukrainian cities are being destroyed as we are compelled to listen to the Russian absurd fakes in the Security Council. Fakes created in a desperate attempt to whitewash the war against Ukraine.
Russian aggression threatens us all and there is an urgent need to be resolute in countering uncivilized, barbaric and mean actions by Russia.
The sooner the aggressor is stopped and held accountable for its crimes, the safer our world will be.
I will not end before I read several paragraphs from an open letter from 194 Nobel laureates.
“The undersigned Nobel laureates voice our support for the Ukrainian people and the free and independent state of Ukraine as it faces Russian aggression. In a move that recalls the infamous attack of Nazi Germany on Poland in 1939 (using similar tricks of feigned provocation) and on the Soviet Union in 1941, the government of the Russian Federation, led by President Putin, has launched an unprovoked military aggression — nothing else but a war — against its neighbor, Ukraine. We choose our words carefully here, for we do not believe the Russian people have a role in this aggression. We join in condemning these military actions and President Putin’s essential denial of the legitimacy of Ukraine’s existence.
We respect the calm and the strength of the Ukrainian people. We are with you. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all, Ukrainians and Russians, who have died and been injured already. May peace come to this piece of our beautiful world.”
I thank you.