United Nations (EFE).- Russia and Ukraine got involved this Thursday in a session of the UN Security Council called by the Russian representative to criticize the supply of weapons from the West and especially from the United States to Kiev.
The meeting began with a warning from the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, about “reports that the supply of arms and ammunition has been accelerated and expanded in the face of the counter-offensive by the Ukrainian Forces”, and called for more “control ” because of the risk of weapons being “diverted”.
He also spoke of “alarming reports of arms transfers to the Russian Forces for use in Ukraine, including UAVs and ammunition.”
The diplomat recalled that since the start of the war until now, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded almost 9,100 deaths and 15,800 civilian injuries in Ukraine, most of them as a result of “explosive weapons with wide-area effects,” with the most recent example in Kramatorsk, this Tuesday.
Russia denounces the benefits of Ukraine’s allies
For his part, the Russian representative, Vasili Nebenzia, opined that the Western allies have become a kind of “private military company” with “exorbitant profits” at the expense of the deaths of Russian troops in the conflict while they continue “blaming ” to Moscow “from everything that happens in Ukraine”.
“The West is handing over weapons, forming battalions, giving intelligence and authorizing attacks, but at the same time they say they are not participating in the conflict, that they are neutral,” he said.
Invited to participate at the end of the session, the Ukrainian ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya assured that “Russia has enough weapons to attack Ukraine at any time, while Ukraine does not have to defend itself”, so stopping the flow of military aid would mean that Russia could attack “constantly and without limit”.
“Ukraine receiving weapons was not the reason three young girls were killed by Russia in Kramatorsk: it was because Russia still has weapons and the will to kill,” Kyslytsya said of that attack, which left 12 dead and 60 wounded, according to Kiev.
“I urge those who are concerned about the transfer of arms to war zones not to forget the difference between the aggressor and the one fighting to survive,” he added, lashing out at his Russian counterpart, who argued that the “aggressor” label imposed on Russia is not “legal” but “political”.
China calls for “negotiations and no confrontation”
The US representative Robert Wood attacked the Russian arguments that the support of fifty countries to Ukraine is a “threat” to international peace and security – that was the title of the meeting – and considered that Moscow tries to “rewrite even the simpler data of this conflict”.
“We are committed to ensuring that Ukraine can exercise its right to self-defense in this brutal and illegal war by Russia, while working to ensure that weapons delivered to it by allies are not diverted into the wrong hands,” Wood said.
The ten countries that intervened supported Ukraine, including France and the United Kingdom, which called for a resolution to the conflict.
China, sympathetic to Russia, offered a short and tempered response, calling for “negotiations, not confrontation,” and offering to be a “facilitator” for peace.
The disarmament official, on the other hand, warned against the “continued and intensified attacks on critical infrastructure and services” in Ukraine, including energy, health and education, roads and bridges, adding that mines and explosive remnants are contaminating agricultural land and hindering movement.