It was to be Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s first in-person appearance at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Moscow’s invasion of his country when Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia objected to him taking the floor at the start of the meeting.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, serving as president of the tense session, responded with a gibe at Moscow, which has long said the invasion does not amount to a war but was a mere “special military operation”.
“I want to assure our Russian colleagues and everyone here that this is not a special operation by the Albanian presidency,” Rama, known for a piercing sense of humor, said to muted laughter across the room.
“There is a solution for this,” Rama continued, addressing Nebenzia directly: “If you agree, you stop the war and President Zelenskiy will not take the floor.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the United Nations Security Council during a ministerial level meeting of the Security Council on the crisis in Ukraine at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar Acquire Licensing Rights
Nebenzia did not agree. He went on to say the session was a show and criticized Rama for what he said was making politically charged statements rather than acting as a neutral guardian of procedure.
After the session, Zelenskiy thanked Rama on social media, saying the Albanian, who is both an artist and former basketball player, “showed the world how to correctly handle Russia, its lies, and its hypocrisy.”
In seeking to justify its invasion, Moscow has said Ukraine’s ambitions to integrate with the West – including NATO – pose a threat to Russia’s national security, an assertion that Kyiv and its allies deny as a baseless pretext to attack.
When given the floor after the back-and-forth, Zelenskiy asked Russia be stripped of its veto right as one of five permanent members of the post-World War Two U.N. Security Council as punishment for attacking Ukraine.
Ukraine has made important progress in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday during a visit overshadowed by a Russian attack that killed at least 17 people.
Police officers and rescuers carry the body of a person killed by a Russian military strike in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, September 6, 2023. Press service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, which hit a crowded market in the eastern front-line town of Kostiantynivka, which is close to the devastated city of Bakhmut. He said a child was among the dead, and officials said at least 32 people were hurt.
“This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible,” Zelenskiy said, describing it as a deliberate attack on a “peaceful city”. Aides posted video footage showing an explosion after what sounded like a missile approaching, and people scurrying for cover or falling to the ground.
Russia did not immediately comment on the attack, and has denied deliberately targeting civilians in its more than 18-month-old invasion, which has shattered towns and cities and killed thousands of civilians.
Blinken, the first top U.S. official to visit Kyiv since the counteroffensive began in early June, announced a new package of U.S. wartime assistance worth more than $1 billion, including support for Ukraine’s air defences.
“In the ongoing counteroffensive, progress has accelerated in the past few weeks. This new assistance will help sustain it and build further momentum,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Blinken earlier described the progress as important and “very, very encouraging”.
U.S. media reports have cited unidentified U.S. officials as saying the Ukrainian counteroffensive has been too slow and hindered by poor tactics – criticism that angered Ukrainian officials and prompted Kuleba to tell critics to “shut up”.
Ukraine has retaken more than a dozen villages and small settlements in its offensive. But its push into Russian-held territory has been slowed by minefields and trenches.
U.S. officials have not publicly criticised Ukraine’s military tactics, and last week said they had seen progress in the southeast.
The new U.S. aid would include HIMARS missile launch systems, Javelin antitank weapons, Abrams tanks and other weapons systems, White House press secretary Larine Jean-Pierre said. The Pentagon said it would also send depleted uranium ammunition.
Asked about Blinken’s visit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peso said Moscow believed Washington planned to continue funding Ukraine’s military “to wage this war to the last Ukrainian”.
He said U.S. aid to Kyiv would not affect the course of what he called Russia’s special military operation.
LONG-RANGE MISSILES
Ukraine’s Kuleba said he and Blinken had discussed the U.S. providing ATACMS long-range missiles and he hoped for a positive decision, adding that arming Ukraine was protecting the world from Moscow’s aggression.
The European Union condemned the Russian attack on the market in Kostiantynivka – which took place on the second day of Blinken’s visit to Kyiv – calling it “heinous and barbaric” and said those behind it would be held to account.
When the shells hit, pharmacy employee Diana Khodak saw a flash and shouted to colleagues to lie on the floor. “I heard things falling over, then everything was covered in smoke and fire started,” she said.
Two injured women were brought to the pharmacy, one carried by a soldier. She had a bone protruding from an open leg fracture. “She was very pale. She remained conscious but in shock while she was given first aid,” Khodak told Reuters.
North Korea has previously denied having any “arms dealings” with Russia, however, the US has imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between the two countries.
Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, pictured together in 2019
Kim Jong Un could travel to Russia to meet president Vladimir Putin, according to a US official.
The North Korean leader could make the trip as early as this month, according to the unnamed source, with the port city of Vladivostok, near to the border between the two countries, believed to be a possible meeting point.
It comes as the US claims the Kremlin is attempting to acquire military equipment for its war in Ukraine.
National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Monday that Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu had travelled to North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang last month.
It is believed Mr Shoigu attempted to persuade North Korea – one of the most militarised countries in the world – to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.
Ms Watson said: “We have information that Kim Jong Un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia.”
She added that the US is urging North Korea “to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia”.
It comes after Mr Shoigu also said on Monday that Russia and North Korea may hold joint war games.
“Why not, these are our neighbours,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Mr Shoigu as saying.
“There’s an old Russian saying: ‘You don’t choose your neighbours, and it’s better to live with your neighbours in peace and harmony’.”
When asked about the possibility of joint exercises between the two countries, he said they were “of course” being discussed, the agency said.
North Korea has previously denied having any “arms dealings” with Russia, however, the US has imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between the two countries.
