Chris Lange, FISM News
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Tempers flared Monday at a United Nations meeting chaired by Russia’s top diplomat. Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came under fire from the U.N. Chief and Western representatives over his country’s unprovoked war on Ukraine.
Lavrov currently presides over the U.N. Security Council, a position that rotates among U.N. members. He convened Monday’s ministerial meeting to tout Moscow’s progress in advancing cooperation between nations through the defense of the U.N. Charter, per The Associated Press.
Lavrov congratulated himself on the strides he said he has made in achieving “multilateralism,” declaring it to be his highest achievement so far in his month-long presidency of the Council.
The U.N. secretary-general and the ambassadors of the U.S., Britain, France, and other allies rebuked Lavrov, declaring that Russia has violated the core principle of the U.N. Charter – recognizing every nation’s sovereignty and independence – by invading Ukraine without any provocation and illegally annexing territories.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield excoriated Lavrov as a “hypocritical convener” of the meeting whose “illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary” war has “struck at the heart of the U.N. Charter and all that we hold dear.”
British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said the world has seen “what Russia’s idea of multilateralism means for the world,” upon witnessing the suffering and devastation it wrought in Ukraine. Woodward said that Russia has brought “unmitigated disaster” on Ukraine as well as itself.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused Russia of threatening the “beating heart” and “guiding vision” of the U.N. Charter with its actions.
Lavrov defended Russia’s actions, reiterating Putin’s claims that he had no choice but to conduct a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid the country of Nazis and to counter NATO’s plans to expand in Ukraine.
He added that “it’s not all about Ukraine,” and accused Washington of collaborating with Kyiv to weaken Russia.
“We cannot consider the Ukrainian issue separately from the geopolitical context,” Lavrov said. “It’s about how international relations will continue to be shaped through the establishment of a sound consensus on the basis of balance of interests, or through aggressive and volatile advancement of Washington’s hegemony.”
UKRAINE INTEL CHIEF: RUSSIA’S MILITARY SWITCHING TO DEFENSIVE POSITIONS
The head of Ukraine’s intelligence service said that Russian forces have been moving into defensive positions in all areas of combat, except Bakhmut, according to a Guardian report.
“They have completely switched to positional defense everywhere,” Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with RBC Ukraine. “The only places on the frontline where they are making attempts are in the city of Bakhmut, an attempt to cover the city of Avdiivka from the north, and localized fighting in the city of Marinka,” he continued. Budano accused Russian forces of using scorched earth tactics in all three regions in “an attempt to wipe the settlements off the face of the earth.”
He added that Russia’s actions reflect desperation in the face of its “lack of success elsewhere” and said that the Kremlin is aware “that even their deceived society needs to see something, some kind of victory.”
1 KILLED, 10 WOUNDED IN MUSEUM ATTACK
A Russian missile struck a museum in Ukraine on Tuesday, killing one worker and wounding 10 others.
Ukrainian officials said the strike was part of a missile attack on Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, per the Associated Press.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video from the site, showing the destroyed building and emergency response teams surveying the damage.
“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely,” Zelenskyy said. “Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”
WOMAN ACCUSED IN BOMBING DEATH OF RUSSIAN BLOGGER DENIED BAIL
Reuters reported that Darya Trepova, the Russian woman charged with killing a pro-war Russian military blogger, was denied bail by a Russian court Monday. Trepova, 26, is accused of using an explosive device to kill Vladen Tatarsky on April 2.
Russian officials allege that Trepova approached Tatarsky as he was about to speak at a cafe in St. Petersburg and handed him a statuette rigged with explosives. Tatarsky was killed in the blast and more than 40 bystanders were wounded.
Russia’s TASS media agency reported that Trepova told the court that she regretted what had happened and that wished a speedy recovery to the other victims.
Trepova’s husband previously told independent Russian media outlets that his wife was set up to take the fall for the blast and that she was told to give the statue to Tatarsky without realizing that it contained explosives.