Taking Moscow's Measure

"Mr. Secretary-General, please instruct the secretariat to distribute among the members of the Security Council and the members of the General Assembly a decision by the Security Council dated December 1991 that recommends that the Russian Federation can be a member of this organization, as well as a decision by the General Assembly dated December 1991 where the General Assembly welcomes the Russian Federation to this organization."

"It would be a miracle if the secretariat is able to produce such decisions."

"There is nothing in the Charter of the United Nations about continuity, as a sneaky way to get into the organization."

"So when I was coming here an hour ago or so, I was intending to ask the Russian ambassador to confirm, on the record, that the Russian troops will not start firing at Ukrainians today and go ahead with the offensive. It became useless 48 minutes. Because about 48 minutes ago, your president declared war on Ukraine."

"So now I would like to ask the ambassador of the Russian Federation to say on the record that at this very moment your troops do not shell and bomb Ukrainian cities, that your troops do not move in the territory of Ukraine."

"You have a smartphone, you can call Lavrov right now. We can make a pause to let you go out and call him."

"If you are not in a position to give an affirmative answer, the Russian Federation ought to relinquish responsibilities of the president of the Security Council, pass these responsibilities of a legitimate member of the Security Council, a member that is respectful of the charter. And I ask the members of the Security Council to convene an emergency meeting immediately and consider all necessary draft decisions to stop the war."

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya

 

Unsurprisingly, Russia, one of five countries that sit on the permanent UN Security Council, vetoed a resolution brought before an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Of course, some things are expected at the United Nations, and others are not: for example, seating Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Russia on the UN human rights council. Human rights, as basic as that might be, are not recognized in those regimes that make no excuses for themselves, yet are officially elevated to that position where they sit in judgement of other nations for whom human rights protection is paramount to their values.

 

On this occasion, however, other members of this discredited branch of the UN whose function is meant to maintain world peace, decided the resolution should be sent to a vote by the 193 membership of the United Nations. A move spurred under the Uniting for Peace resolution, which holds that when the Security Council fails to act in the maintenance of international peace due to lack of unanimity, the General Assembly can be called upon to consider the issue. In so doing it can call for collective remedial measures, including the use of armed force.

 

When Russia infamously annexed Crimea in 2014, 100 member countries of the UN supported a General Assembly commitment in support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine -- representing 52 percent of UN members. At the same time, 11 voted against, 58 abstained and 24 were absent; an entirely expected outcome, one reflecting 'business as usual' at that august body of global brotherhood. Martin Kimani, Kenya's ambassador to the UN spoke compellingly to the current issue:"Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we [Kenya] chose to look forward", he said.

"In the last two meetings on the situation in Ukraine, and the build up of forces by the Russian Federation, Kenya urged that diplomacy be given a chance. Our cry was not heeded and, more importantly, the Charter’s demand for states to settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered has been profoundly undermined."

"Today, the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine has been effected. Kenya is gravely concerned by the announcement made by the Russian Federation to recognize Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as independent states. In our considered view, this action and announcement breaches the territorial integrity of -- of Ukraine."

"We do not deny that there may be serious security concerns in these regions. But they cannot justify today’s recognition of these regions as independent states -- not when there are multiple diplomatic tracks available and underway that have the ability to offer peaceful solutions."

"We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious, or cultural factors. We -- We reject it again today. Kenya registers its strong concern and opposition to the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. We further strongly condemn the trend in the last few decades of powerful states, including members of this Security Council, breaching international law with little regard."

"Multilateralism lies on its deathbed tonight. It has been assaulted today as it as it has been by other powerful states in the recent past. We call on all members to rally behind the Secretary-General in asking him to rally us all to the standard that defends multilateralism. We also call on him to bring his good offices to bear to help the concerned parties resolve this situation by peaceful means.

Let me conclude, Mr. President, by reaffirming Kenya's respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders."

Kenyan UN Ambassador Martin Kimani

A General Assembly force could be formed to intervene in Ukraine, under the United for Peace Resolution. There are other options, where members could task the UN's Secretary-
General Antonio Guterres to attend to the situation linking Russian forces to war crimes for the purpose of expulsion should they prove to be verifiable. Should a member persistently violate principles of the UN Charter, rules are that they can be expelled.

The Washington Post  Cluster and Vacuum bombs the Russian military is accused of using as war crimes.

 

And, in fact, Vladimir Putin on Monday was accused of war crimes in the wake of his military's indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities where civilians have been killed, including children. A doctor who desperately tried to save the life of a six-year-old girl, killed in her bombed family home, declared: "Show this to Putin. The eyes of this child, and crying doctors". Mr. Putin, the inscrutable Mr. Putin, has never shrunk from delivering death to his adversaries. And a Ukrainian child became by her ethnicity and residence, an adversary.

Anther dead-by-military-conquest was Polina, age ten, pictured with pink-streaked hair, killed by Russian saboteurs along with her parents and brother, in Kyiv. The Kremlin ordered Kharkiv to be bombarded on the fifth day of the conflict. Kharkiv, the nation's second-largest city, claimed the Russian military deployed cluster munitions in its dense urban areas to maximize civilian casualties. A situation not unfamiliar to Russia, which previously was accused of the use of cluster bombs in Syria.

According to the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan, a war crimes investigation was soon to begin. "Kharkiv has just been massively fired upon by Grads (rockets). Dozens dead and hundreds wounded", stated Ukraine's interior minister. "The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no positions of the armed forces", stated Kharkiv's governor, Oleg Sinegubov.

Fatalities, according to Ihor Terkhov, mayor of Kharkiv, included a family of five with three children "incinerated alive" when a Russian rocket hit their car. "It's not just a war, it's murder", he said. Dozens were killed in strikes on the port city of Mariupol where apartment blocks were shelled. Russia, not a signatory to the convention on cluster munitions banning the use of indiscriminate weapons aside, the Geneva Convention outlaws the targeting of civilians.

Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuhuiv, near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. Humanitarian organizations say Russian forces are using cluster munitions in their bombing and shelling of Ukraine. Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images