SWITZERLAND: At the United Nations on Thursday, Russia made a stern demand that the Western powers of the United States and Britain provide reasonable evidence to support their claims that Moscow was attempting to acquire drones from Iran and rockets and artillery shells from North Korea in order to bombard Ukraine.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia appeared before the 15-member Security Council and expressed Moscow’s defensive attitude towards such baseless accusations. He said, “I would like to ask them now to either provide us with evidence or acknowledge that they are disseminating unreliable information.”
The United States has accused Russia of acquiring drones from Iran for war in Ukraine, which Tehran has explicitly denied. Washington has also accused Moscow of currently being “in the process” of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, deputy U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills told the council.
In clear violation of UN sanctions, Russia is turning to North Korea for ammunition and Iran for unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward.
Russia called the Security Council meeting on Ukraine to discuss the US and UK’s supply of foreign weapons to Kyiv. Western allies of the United States, Britain, France and others have joined hands together and defended the billions of dollars invested in supplying arms and military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its “special military operation” on February 24.
According to Mills, Russian claims to the contrary are that the “West” and the United States are escalating and prolonging this conflict.
“They are cynical attempts to divert attention away from Moscow’s position as the only aggressor in an unnecessary and brutal conflict for which the entire world is paying the price.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion or what he calls the “special military operation” to disarm its neighbour and attempt to pre-emptively protect his country’s security against the expansion of NATO, the Western military alliance.
President Putin has defended its military and political actions, claiming that the Russian objective is to protect Russian-speaking minorities in Ukraine and rid the country of staunch nationalists.
Ukraine on Thursday said it had achieved grand successes in a lightning offensive where it recaptured vast swathes of its annexed territory in the east and south, amid US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to the country to pledge further aid to the Ukrainian cause.
“We are very far still from the end of this destructive process,” Nebenzia told the council. “Western weaponry is not playing a decisive role on the battlefield, regardless of what the Ukrainians and their vassals are saying.”
“We will fight against the occupiers until all the Russian soldiers who entered Ukraine to kill its people are defeated,” said Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s UN ambassador.
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