In a debate marked by attacks, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called in the UN Security Council to oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This war is not the war of the Russian people. This war is Putin's war," the Green politician said on Friday in a special session in New York on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "The Russian president is risking the future of his own country." A just peace is also in the interest of the people in Russia.
"We will not convince the Russian representative"
Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, accused Western supporters of Ukraine – including Germany – of wanting to destroy Russia. The word "peace" is used disingenuously, Moscow's representative to the United Nations said: "What is meant is a capitulation of Russia, which ideally inflicts a strategic defeat on Russia, followed by the dissolution of the country and the reorganization of the territories."
With regard to Russia, Baerbock continued: "I have no illusions: We will not convince the Russian representative today." Nebenzya is not even listening – the Russian diplomat was not in the room when she spoke. China's representative Dai Bing called for talks between Moscow and Kiev "without preconditions." Russia and China sit as permanent members in the most powerful body of the United Nations, as do the US, France and Great Britain. Germany currently has no seat there.
Dispute over minute's silence
The high-ranking meeting on the anniversary of the beginning of the war was repeatedly held up by diplomatic manoeuvres. At the beginning, Nebenzya tried to prevent Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba from speaking to members of the Security Council, but did not succeed. When Kuleba initiated a minute's silence for the victims of the war at the end of his speech, Nebenzya took the floor and demanded that the minute's silence should apply to the victims on all sides since 2014.
In his speech, Kuleba was confident of victory: "Putin will lose much sooner than he thinks." He again called for the establishment of a special tribunal with special jurisdiction for the crime of aggressive war, citing the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after World War II as a model.
Blinken warns of ceasefire
Kuleba again emphasized that thousands of children had been abducted to Russia. "Probably the largest case of state-sponsored child abduction in the history of our modern world." Russia rejects the allegations.
Probably alluding to a new position paper by China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned against a "temporary or unconditional" ceasefire. "Russia will use every pause in fighting to consolidate control over the illegally captured territory and increase its forces for further attacks." The members of the Security Council should therefore not be deceived by calls for a ceasefire.
China had previously called for a ceasefire in the war against Ukraine. The document also calls for an early resumption of negotiations. Baerbock emphasized at the end of her speech: "What we can do is stand up for a world in which peace means peace." One should not "ignore who is the attacker and who is the victim," Baerbock said. "For submission is not peace."