The UN Security Council held a meeting on the Minsk agreements amid Western concern over the threat of a "Russian invasion" of Ukraine and a new aggravation in the Donbass. During the meeting, Russia stated the lack of Kiev's desire to resolve the conflict, urging other countries to abandon unfounded accusations against Moscow. However, at the event, the United States again announced the danger of an “attack” by the Russian Federation on Ukraine, advocating a peaceful settlement of the situation. How the UN Security Council meeting went - in the material. A new meeting of the UN Security Council on the implementation of the Minsk agreements was held within the framework of Russia's chairmanship in the organization's Security Council. The discussion was traditionally timed to coincide with the date of the conclusion of agreements on the settlement of the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine - this year they have already turned seven years old.

The meeting itself started with statements by the deputy secretary general of the organization, as well as representatives of the OSCE in the trilateral contact group and the special monitoring mission in Ukraine. All of them stated that there was no progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the situation on the ground had worsened. Separately, the OSCE voiced problems with access to monitoring on the contact line of the parties due to the actual blocking of the mission's work.

Back to news »

What Moscow Says

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Vershinin represented Moscow at the meeting. In his speech, he focused on Ukraine's refusal to comply with the Minsk agreements, citing as an example the statements of officials, including the words of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba regarding the impossibility of dialogue with the DPR and LPR, although this is required by the agreements.

“Seven years later, not one of the provisions of the package of measures has been fully implemented by Ukraine, starting from the first point of the ceasefire. The root of the problem is Kiev's systematic unwillingness to enter into direct dialogue with the authorized representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk in the contact group.

Kiev has taken a course towards a complete rejection of direct interaction with the Donbass, ”the Russian representative noted.

From Vershinin's point of view, Ukraine is also actively promoting the view that the Minsk agreements are contrary to its national interests. Kiev is trying to present Russia as a party to the conflict and shift the responsibility for the fact that there is no progress in the settlement, although Russia is not even mentioned in the text of the agreements.

At the same time, the minister pointed out that Moscow distributed among the members of the UN Security Council materials of the Investigative Committee and RT about the crimes of the military of Ukraine in the Donbass, including those related to the use of prohibited methods of warfare - “please look at these materials and ask you to be prepared for what you will see terrible."

Vershinin paid special attention to the inaction of Western states in terms of pressure on Ukraine in the context of the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

According to him, at least the “ostrich position” of his colleagues is extremely disappointing, as the growing sense of impunity is pushing Kiev to new excuses along the settlement track.

“I would like to express the hope that the representatives of Western countries will resist the temptation to please the TV cameras to turn our meeting today into a platform for groundless, aggressive verbal exercises and bring their unsubstantiated accusations that Russia is allegedly going to attack Ukraine. the date of the alleged invasion has already passed. Therefore, probably, there is no need to put yourself in an awkward position, ”the diplomat emphasized.

H4 How the USA spoke / h4 The appeal of the vertex to representatives of the West on the abstinence was ignored. It was with them that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken began his speech, announcing the threat of an “attack” on Ukraine in the coming days.

“If Russia does not invade Ukraine, we will take it with relief. This would mean that Russia has changed course and our predictions are wrong.

This will be a much more preferable development than what is happening now. And in this case, we will gladly accept any criticism from anyone, ”the head of the State Department announced.

The Secretary of State explained the presence of a threat by the accumulation of Russian forces near the Ukrainian borders, noting the preservation of troops, despite Moscow's statement about the return of a number of military personnel to permanent deployment points. Moreover, Blinken admitted that Russia was allegedly preparing a provocation in order to create a pretext for an “attack”.

“We don’t know exactly how things will play out, but Russia is planning to develop a subtext for the attack…

We don’t know what it will look like — like a terrorist attack inside Russia, the discovery of a mass grave, drone strikes on civilians, or a fictional or real use of chemical weapons,” the head of the State Department explained.At the same time, Blinken nevertheless acknowledged that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements for resolving the situation in Ukraine, although the United States links the current aggravation around Ukrainian territory with a crisis within the country. Moreover, the Secretary of State assured that the United States was ready for a dialogue with Russia on security issues and announced a possible meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“We also propose to hold meetings within the Russia-NATO Council and the OSCE Permanent Council. These meetings could pave the way for a summit of key leaders on de-escalation [in Ukraine] to reach an understanding on our security concerns,” Blinken concluded.

Back to news »

What did Ukraine say

A lot of speakers expressed their fears about the “Russian invasion”: representatives of Great Britain, Albania, Germany, France and Ukraine. Kiev's permanent representative to the UN, Sergei Kislitsa, in principle, focused on accusations against Moscow, including on the track of the Minsk agreements.

“I want to draw your attention to a situation that raises the process of a peaceful settlement and peace agreements. The State Duma of the Russian Federation appealed to President Putin to recognize the "LDNR" as independent republics. This decision is contrary to the obligations that Russia assumed as a signatory to the Minsk agreements, Russia has a choice - to choose the path of de-escalation or suffer a serious response from the international community," the diplomat announced.

From Kislitsa's point of view, Russia is allegedly obliged to comply with the Minsk agreements, since the DPR and LPR are not independent entities, but are “controlled” by Moscow. At the same time, the permanent representative of Ukraine noted that it was the Russian side that allegedly hindered the implementation of the agreements, refusing dialogue and Kiev's initiatives.

“We are ready to resume negotiations of the Normandy Four in all formats, including at the level of leaders. We regret that Russia continues to express its unwillingness to host a Normandy Four summit,” Kislitsa added.

At the same time, at the end of his speech, the permanent representative of Ukraine unexpectedly turned directly to the representative of Russian: Kislytsya quoted the words of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, that from the point of view of international law, the geopolitical transformations of 1991 did not lead to the disappearance of the USSR as a subject of international law - and the fact that Russia is not the successor, but the successor of the Soviet Union.

“Let them say to me: “Calm down ...” - I won’t be able to be calm. As long as Stalin's heirs are still alive on earth, it will seem to me that Stalin is still in the mausoleum, ”Kislitsa concluded, responding to Zakharova’s statement with poems by the Soviet poet Yevtushenko.

Back to news | This was stated by Russia's representative Vershinin at the end of the meeting.

He called statements about the threat of Russia's "invasion" groundless, and considered the fears of his colleagues due to the call of State Duma deputies to recognize the DPR and LPR as unnecessary speculation, since Moscow's position on the Minsk agreements remains the same. This excludes the recognition of the republics of Donbass.

In conclusion, Vershinin responded to his Ukrainian colleague's poems about Stalin, noting that this is not the first time Ukraine has been trying to assert itself through the issue of the legality of Russia's presence in the UN.

“I really love poems about the beauty of Nikolai Zabolotsky. Remember this quatrain?

And if so, what is beauty?

And why do people deify her?

She is a vessel in which beauty,

Or fire flickering in a vessel?

I would compare beauty with wisdom. We need to make wise decisions, including with regard to the settlement in the east of Ukraine on the basis of the Minsk package of measures,” the minister concluded.

bbabo.Net