At UN Security Council, Ukrainian Ambassador Warns

Russia to Escalate Aggression without Stern Reproach

As the winds of war intensify from within the Kremlin, the United Nations had another opportunity to hear about the devastating crimes against Ukraine perpetrated by Russia and its invading army.

In a presentation at a special session on Ukraine at the UN Security Council on Tuesday, October 30, Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN, warned the international community that Russia will escalate its aggression against Ukraine and perhaps other countries if its belligerence isn’t harnessed by a global campaign.

Yelchenko appealed to Security Council members not to support Russia’s intention to hold elections in its occupied oblasts of Ukraine in violation of Ukrainian and international laws.

Otherwise, he continued, the “elections may serve as a stepping-stone towards a new cycle of the Russian armed aggression.”

The Ukrainian official thanked Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States calling for this special Security Council session and their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. But he castigated Russia in no uncertain terms for its “well-documented acts against Ukraine: military aggression, occupation and attempted illegal annexation of Ukraine’s territories.”

Yelchenko likened Russia’s conduct to that of “a hardened and unrepentant criminal determined to make a mockery of a justice system.” He also accused Russia of being “hell-bent on sabotaging all genuine efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and to bring peace to the war-torn regions of Donbas.”

Russia’s plans for so-called “early elections” in its occupied regions of Ukraine would be tantamount to “putting armed gangs’ leaders in seats in illegitimate representative bodies. This is nothing else but a provocation, an outrage against the Minsk agreements and Ukraine’s sovereignty,” he stated, adding that Ukraine will never recognize this Russian ruse to subjugate its land and people.

“Let me make it clear: only legitimately and lawfully elected officials can represent the local communities in Donbas, and not the Kremlin’s puppets sent from or appointed by Moscow,” Yelchenko declared.

The Ukrainian ambassador noted that while Russia insists that the Ukrainian government talk directly with the officials in Donetsk and Luhansk, in fact, there are no legitimate representatives freely elected by the people. Yelchenko emphasized that the authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk are “simply Moscow’s puppets, who are installed or removed from their positions at a whim of their Kremlin masters,” while Russia continues to exercise full political and administrative control over this territory.

“Moscow has created and supported the illegal armed formations in Donetsk and Luhansk. It provides them with full-fledged political, military, and social-economic support as well as ideological guidance,” he said. “Their very existence is impossible without Russia’s direct financial aid, which amounts to $1.3 billion. The Russian Armed Forces exercise full command and control over military formations in the occupied areas of Ukraine.”

Yelchenko listed several facts about Russia’s military invasion of Eastern Ukraine and its subsequent occupation of two oblasts.

He said: “Just a few facts from the latest reports of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. In August, its UAVs registered convoys of cargo trucks illegally crossing at night the segment of the Ukrainian-Russian state border currently controlled by the Russian side. The convoy then drove to the town of Khrustalnyi, a well-known storage of Russian heavy weapons. Later, in the same Khrustalnyi, the SMM spotted hundreds of ‘ammunition crates (some of which were assessed as new), as well as 118 crates of MLRS rockets.’ As per SMM reports, its monitors also identified four distinct electronic warfare systems (a Leer-3 RB-341V, a 1L269 Krasukha-2, a RB-109A Bylina and an anti-UAV system, Repellent-1) near non-government-controlled Chornukhyne.”

The latest Russian assault against Ukraine is developing in the Sea of Azov, which may soon become the Kremlin’s third front in the nearly five-year Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-18.

“In the last six months, the Russian Federation stopped in an abusive manner over 200 vessels bound for Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk. As confirmed by the OSCE SMM, these interruptions to commercial shipping caused economic and trade disruptions resulting in commercial losses for the ports employing thousands of people. Such actions of Russia are inconsistent with its obligations under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and breach the navigational rights of Ukraine and of the flag States of the stopped vessels. Vessels bound for Russian ports in the Sea of Azov have not been subjected to similarly disruptive stoppages,” Yelchenko charged.

In addition to the Kerch Strait Bridge, which was built unlawfully and unilaterally in violation of Ukraine’s rights and has become a major hindrance to international navigation, Yelchenko said Russia “also uses the Sea of Azov as an additional channel to supply its forces in Donbas with weapons from the occupied territory of Crimea. According to our information, Russia has not given up on the idea of having a land corridor to Crimea. Furthermore, the threat of a maritime assault from the Azov direction in case of a large-scale military confrontation remains a source of security destabilization in the Donetsk region.”

And then there is the peninsula of Crimea, the first Ukrainian territory that was invaded and occupied by Russia some two weeks after the conclusion of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which blindsided the world.

“In the occupied Crimea active militarization proceeds at full speed. Russia has more than doubled the strength of its military on the peninsula and continues the preparation of Crimean military infrastructure for deployment of nuclear weapons including refurbishment of Soviet-era nuclear warheads storage facilities,” he said.

“The situation with human rights in the peninsula also remains highly alarming. The OHCHR findings confirm ‘the continuing failure of the Russian Federation authorities, as the occupying power, to adequately guarantee and protect a wide range of human rights in Crimea.’”

Yelchenko also reminded the council members that more than 70 Ukrainian citizens have been detained and incarcerated in Russian Arctic penal colonies and occupied Crimea by Russian authorities under trumped-up politically motivated charges.

If that weren’t enough, Yelchenko said “this whole bleak picture would be incomplete without mentioning a massive campaign of propaganda and incitement of hatred against Ukraine and Ukrainians launched in by the Russian government. Russian state-owned media and public figures are spending hours in a prime time on the television to promote insinuations about the Ukrainian people. This has already played a significant role in the occupation of Crimea and fueling the conflict in Donbas.”

Since Russia controls the war against Ukraine, Yelchenko said the solution can only be found in Moscow. Ukraine is ready to enter into serious discussions with Russian authorities, but “Alas, such readiness is not present yet in Russia,” he pointed out disappointedly.

“As regrettable as it may be, until there is a tangible change in the Russian policy towards building genuine neighborly relations with countries around its borders based on respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity instead of creating areas of instability and waging wars, the Council will continue gathering around this table to discuss never ending follies of the Russian expansionist and aggressive policies.”

The Ukrainian ambassador concluded his remarks by echoing observations by other sage world leaders, who has said “One thing is for sure, appeasing the Kremlin and playing along will not contribute to building a more stable and safer world.”

Appeasing Russia will only lead to its bolder aggression against other countries.

The Security Council session did not only hear the Ukrainian official but it was privy to Russian clashes with the United States and European powers over the illegality of elections in Russian-occupied regions of eastern Ukraine. The UN’s political chief concurred with Ukraine and Western states that the vote would violate a 2015 accord laying out steps for settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The position taken by UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo left Russia isolated at the Security Council meeting. Western allies also blocked Russia from bringing a Luhansk separatist criminal, Olena Kravchenko, before the council to provide a briefing on the elections.

“The conflict in eastern Ukraine, now in its fifth year, remains an active threat to international peace and security,” DiCarlo said, reinforcing comments by Ukraine that Russia’s aggression in Donbas is a threat to regional and global peace and security.

Before the meeting began, a joint statement from France, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and Germany was read outside the council chamber condemning what they called “the illegitimate ‘elections’ planned for November 11.”

The US deputy ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Cohen, later also claimed the “sham elections staged by Russia” violated the Minsk agreement, which states that elections must be held in accordance with Ukrainian law and be supervised by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

This was not the first occasion that Russia has been diplomatically reprimanded and justifiably isolated for its criminal behavior in Ukraine and elsewhere. Furthermore, the United Nations earlier had declared Russia to be an aggressor state that has invaded and occupied regions of Ukraine.

These public admonishments against Russia are worthwhile but they shouldn’t end on that note. While they serve to remind the free countries that their peace, freedom and existence are credibly endangered, they must also sound the clarion for their serious steps to subdue Russia’s wilful aggression and force it to evacuate its army and mercenaries from Ukraine.