Dramatic face-to-face between Russia and Ukraine in New York

A minute of silence, then two ambassadors who follow one another on the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York in an electric atmosphere: the Ukrainian Sergueï Kyslytsya and the Russian Vassily Nebenzia. The first even speaks in the language of Pushkin to describe the exchanges between a young Russian soldier, supposed to be in Crimea, but sent to Ukraine to fight, and his parents. The soldier is scared, the parents want to send him a package. The soldier explains how he is treated as a fascist in the streets of Ukraine. Shortly after, he will be killed in the war launched by Russia in Ukraine. Then, without naming him, Sergei Kyslytsya refers to Hitler and compares the attitude of Vladimir Putin’s regime to the Third Reich. He hammers it: “If Ukraine does not survive, neither will international peace and democracy.”

Read also: Human Rights Council to Hold Urgent Debate on Ukraine

In the process, Vassily Nebenzia delivers at lightning speed the Russian justifications for the war: the refusal of Kiev to entrust a special status to the separatist republics of Donbass, the Ukrainian attacks against the Russian-speaking population. He invokes self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The tension is maximum, the reciprocal invectives of a rare violence. EU Ambassador Olof Skoog calls for massive support for a resolution condemning Moscow and urging it to cease hostilities. A vote will take place on Tuesday.

–

–