UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 A week before the anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin\u2019s U.N. ambassador claimed that the West is driven by its determination to destroy Russia and declared: \u201cWe had no choice other than to defend our country \u2014 defend it from you, to defend our identity and our future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Western ambassadors shot back, accusing Russia of using a Security Council meeting it called on lessons learned from the failure to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists that began in 2014 to justify what France\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere called \u201cthe unjustifiable\u201d \u2013 Russia\u2019s invasion of its smaller neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday\u2019s meeting in the council \u2014 the only international venue where Russia regularly faces Ukraine and its Western supporters \u2014 put a spotlight on the deep chasm between the warring parties as the conflict moves into its second year with no end in sight, tens of thousands of casualties on both sides, and new military offensives expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Western nations including France and Germany of \u201cholding back\u201d on implementing the Minsk agreements brokered by the two countries to end the conflict between Ukraine and the separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk in the country\u2019s mostly Russian-speaking industrial east that flared in April 2014 after Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou knew very well that the Minsk process for you is just a smoke screen, so as to rearm the Kyiv regime and to prepare it for war against Russia in the name of your geopolitical interest,\u201d Nebenzia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills accused Russia of failing to implement \u201ca single commitment it made\u201d in the Minsk agreements while the other signatories \u2014 France, Germany, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe \u2014 \u201csought to implement them in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
France\u2019s De Riviere said his country and Germany have worked \u201ctirelessly\u201d since 2015 to promote dialogue between parties. \u201cThe difficulties encountered in implementing these agreements can never serve as justification or mitigating circumstances for Russia\u2019s choice to end the dialogue with violence,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De Riviere recalled that exactly a year ago, on Feb. 17, 2022, Russia\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin reaffirmed to the council that the Minsk agreements were \u201cthe only international legal basis\u201d to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, and that rumors of Russian military intervention were unfounded and stemmed from Western paranoia. Four days later, Russia recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, and on Feb. 24 it invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe one and only lesson to be learned here is that Russia, by attacking Ukraine, has chosen alone, to put an end to dialogue and negotiation,\u201d De Riviere said. \u201cIt took the decision alone to shatter the Minsk agreements, whose main objective, let us remember, was the reintegration of some regions of Donetsk and Luhansk under full Ukrainian sovereignty, in exchange for broad decentralization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward also cited Vershinin\u2019s statement to the council that allegations of a Russian attack were baseless a week before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, and said the United Kingdom had learned some lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRussia lied when we warned of its intention to attack Ukraine,\u201d she said. \u201cRussia was planning for war while we called for diplomacy and de-escalation, and Russia continues to choose death and destruction while the world calls for a just peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s Nebenzia blamed \u201ca criminal policy by the Ukrainian leadership which was goaded by the collective West\u201d for refusing to implement the Minsk agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a year of war, he told Western members of the Security Council, \u201cObviously, we will not be able to live in the future the way we did in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nebenzia accused the West of \u201cdeep Russophobia,\u201d and a \u201cdetermination to destroy my country, using others if possible.\u201d And he claimed it is not interested \u201cin building a European and Euro-Atlantic security system together with Russia\u201d because \u201cfor you such a system can only be aimed against Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have no trust left in you and we are not able of believing any promises you make \u2014 not as regards a non-expansion of NATO in the east, or your desire not to interfere in our internal affairs, or your determination to live in peace,\u201d Nebenzia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have shown that it\u2019s impossible to negotiate with you,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve shown how treacherous you are by creating on our borders a neo-Nazi, neo-nationalist beehive and then stirring it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya accused Russia of violating the Minsk agreements, citing as an example the Minsk memorandum of Sept. 19, 2014 ordering all military, militias and mercenaries to leave Ukraine that was never implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe truth is that Putin has proved once and for all to be impossible to negotiate with,\u201d he said. \u201cRussia\u2019s consistent undermining and final killing of the Minsk agreements make that crystal clear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine urges \u201chealthy forces in Russia, if there are any, to come to their senses and force Putin to implement the demands of the U.N. General Assembly to immediately cease the use of force and to withdraw Russian military forces from Ukraine,\u201d Kyslytsya said. \u201cThe dictator should give up and recede into the past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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