New York [US]: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday (local time) accused the West of selectively turning to principles of the UN Charter on a case-by-case basis based on their “parochial geopolitical needs.”
Addressing the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine, Lavrov said Russia continues to insist on all provisions of the United Nations Charter being respected and applied fully and not selectively.
The Russian Foreign Minister said, “Thanks to the United Nations, a new world war was averted. A new world war that was fraught with nuclear disaster. Unfortunately, after the end of the Cold War, the collective West, led by the US single-handedly decided that it would determine the fates of all of humankind and with its complex of superiority began to more frequently and broadly ignore the legacy of the founding fathers of the United Nations.
Today, the West turns selectively to norms and principles on a case-by-case basis, exclusively based on their parochial geopolitical needs. This has resulted in the shaking of global stability as well as the exacerbation and the fermenting of new hotbeds of tension. Risks of global conflict have heightened.”
“In order to curb them, in order to bring things on a peaceful path, the Russian Federation has and continues to insist on all provisions of the United Nations Charter being respected and applied not selectively but fully in their full and interconnected way.
This includes the principle of the sovereign equality of states, non-intervention in their domestic affairs, respect for territorial sovereignty, integrity and the right of peoples to self-determination and the actions of the US and their allies attest to the systematic violation of the balance of needs which have been enshrined in the Charter,” he added.
Accusing the US of interfering with the domestic affairs of Ukraine since the collapse of the erstwhile USSR, he stressed that the meeting, being held uinder the Albanian Presidency, allows them to restore the chronological succession of events, particularly in the context of relations of the main acting parties and the purposes of the UN Charter.
“Since the collapse of the USSR and establishment of independent states in its place, the US and its … have egregiously and openly interfered in the domestic affairs of Ukraine as was publicly and even with pride recognized by the Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Newland in 2013, the USD 5 billion were spent on cultivating Ukrainian politicians in Kyiv by the west,” Lavrov said.
“All of the facts are being swept under the rug. There are attempts to cancel all of what happened prior to 2014, and for this reason, the theme of today’s meeting proposed by the Albanian presidency is most apt, which allows us to restore the chronological succession of events, specifically in the context of relations of the main acting parties, in the implementation of the principles and the purposes of the UN charter,” he added.
He also accused the US of electing people who became key participants in the coup. He said “putschists” after the coup announced that their top priority was to deny the rights of Russian language speakers in Ukraine and Crimea.
He said a “litany of Western leaders” directly encouraged participants in “anti-government demonstrations and acts of violence”.
“In February 2014, the US elected individuals who became key participants in the brutal coup which was organized. I would recall one day after what was reached under the guarantees of Germany, Poland and France. I referred to the agreement between the legitimately elected president of Ukraine and the opposition leaders. The principle of non-intervention in domestic affairs was repeatedly trampled upon,” the Russian Foreign Minister added.
“Immediately after the coup, the putschists announced that their top priority was to deny the rights of Russian language speakers in Ukraine and the residents of Crimean, southeast of the country who refused to reconcile themselves to the outcomes of the coup were labelled terrorists. A punitive operation was unleashed against them.
In response to this, Crimea and Donbas conducted a referendum fully in line with the principles of equality and self-determination of peoples which are enshrined in paragraph 2 of article 1 of the UN charter. Western diplomats and politicians vis-a-vis Ukraine have been turning a blind eye to this important norm of international law. They have been trying to take all the background and the essence of what has happened and trying to distill this to the inadmissibility of violation of territorial integrity,” he added.
Also accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former President Petro Poroshenko of adopting racist law and terming it a blatant violation of the UN charter, he said the Kyiv regime’s actions directly counter the constitution of Ukraine.
“To the fact that the Ukrainian neo-Nazis who seized power in Kyiv did not represent the population of Crimea and Donbas is something that does not need to be proven. And the unconditional support from Western capitals of the actions, criminal actions, of the Kyiv regime is nothing other than a violation of the principle of self-determination subsequent to an egregious violation interference in domestic affairs,” Lavrov said.
“Poroshenko and Zelenskyy adopted racist laws on the prohibition of everything Russian – education, media, culture, the destruction of books and monuments, a prohibition on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church seizure of its property. These all became blatant violations of paragraph 3, Article 1 of the UN Charter on the Respect for Human Rights and Basic Freedoms for all, without distinctions on the basis of race, gender, language and religion.
Not to mention the fact that these actions directly rank counter to the constitution of Ukraine itself, the constitution which sets out the obligation of the state to respect the rights of Russian and other national minorities,” he added.
