Lavrov rejects the Ukraine referendum - and counters Selenskyj's Bucha speech with reproach

Created: 04/06/2022, 10:20 am

By: Christoph Gschossmann

Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, speaks with representatives of the Arab League during his talks.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko/dpa

The world is looking to New York: both Ukraine's President Zelensky and Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov comment on Bucha.

Update from April 6, 9:53 a.m .:

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned against sabotaging the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev to end the fighting in Ukraine.

Russia will not engage in a "cat-and-mouse game" like in previous years with the peace plan for eastern Ukraine, Lavrov said on Tuesday in a video distributed by the ministry.

Specifically, Lavrov said Russia does not want a referendum on a possible Moscow-Kyiv treaty to resolve the conflict.

There is "a very high probability" that the negotiation process will start all over again in the event of a "negative result" in the referendum, Lavrov warned.

The Ukrainian negotiators recently agreed to negotiate a neutral status for the country, including renunciation of NATO membership.

In return, Kyiv is demanding security guarantees from third countries.

According to Ukraine, a possible treaty on the country's neutrality should be put to the vote at the end of the population - after the withdrawal of the Russian troops.

Lavrov openly rejected this for the first time.

At the same time, Russia's chief diplomat criticized the fact that the situation in the small Ukrainian town of Bucha near Kyiv was being used to distract from the negotiations.

Hundreds of bodies were found there after Russian troops withdrew.

Lavrov categorically denied Ukraine's accusations that the Russian army had carried out a massacre there.

He claimed it was a provocation by Ukrainian nationalists.

He did not present any evidence of this.

However, he claimed that forces with the "staging" tried to disrupt the process of negotiations.

Ukraine President Selenskyj accuses UN of failure

Update, 6:57 p.m .:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has accused the UN Security Council of failure in the Ukraine war.

"Where is the Security Council?" asked Zelenskyj, who was connected via video, on Tuesday in front of the committee in New York.

"It is evident that the world's central institution for protecting peace cannot function effectively."

However, decisions by the Security Council are necessary for peace in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

He therefore proposes three possible solutions: proof that reform or change is possible, the exclusion of Russia, which as a permanent member can block any decision, or the complete dissolution of the council.

The entire United Nations also needs change, said Zelenskyj.

"The goals set in San Francisco in 1945 have not been achieved and it is impossible to achieve them without reform." Zelenskyj suggested, among other things, a large "global conference" in Kyiv.

"We must do everything in our power to hand over an effective UN to the next generation," said the Ukrainian president.

"Ukraine needs peace, Europe needs peace and the world needs peace."

Zelenskyy in the UN Security Council: "Accountability must be unavoidable"

Update, 5:00 p.m .:

In his speech to the UN Security Council for the Bucha war crimes, Volodymyr Zelenskyj called for a tribunal in the style of the Nuremberg trials.

"Accountability must be unavoidable," said Zelenskyy.

Russia committed "crimes" in the Ukraine war.

Zelenskyy also accused Russia of kidnapping "hundreds of thousands" of Ukrainians to Russia.

“There is no crime that the Russian military does not commit.

They kill whole families, they shoot people in the streets, in the back of the head after torturing them.

Civilians were run over by tanks for fun.

Women were raped in front of their children.”

In Zelenskyy's view, the behavior of Russian troops is no different from that of terrorist organizations.

The only difference is "that this terrorist organization has a seat on the UN Security Council." The Ukrainian President asked the group: "Where is this security?" Zelenskyj also said that Russia behaved like a colonial power.

"They need our wealth and our people."

Zelenky and Lavrov speak at the UN about Bucha

First report from April 5, 4:55 p.m .:

Munich / New York – Ukraine and Russia speak to the UN about Bucha: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is scheduled to speak to the UN Security Council on Tuesday for the first time since the Russian invasion of his country.

This was announced by Great Britain, which currently holds the presidency, on Monday evening.

One of the topics will be the alleged massacre of the civilian population in the Kiev suburb of Bucha - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also comment on this.

Meanwhile, Great Britain, together with the USA, is pushing ahead with the expulsion of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council because of the alleged massacre of civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha.

Russia sharply criticized the western advances.

In a video address, Zelenskyy confirmed his appearance before the UN Security Council, on which Russia has a permanent seat.

Zelenskyj referred to the civilians allegedly killed by Russian troops in the capital suburb of Bucha: "The time will come when every Russian will learn the whole truth about which of their compatriots killed.

Who gave the orders.”

Ukraine war: Selenskyj calls for tougher sanctions against Russia

The Ukrainian head of state again called on the international community to tighten sanctions against Moscow and to supply more arms to his country.

The US President's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, announced new economic sanctions against Russia later this week.

Britain's UN mission said on Twitter that it would "make sure the truth about Russia's war crimes comes to light".

Britain will "expose Putin's war for what it really is," the diplomatic mission said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After the withdrawal of Russian troops, Ukrainian authorities found numerous bodies of suspected civilians in Bucha and other Kiev suburbs.

Western heads of government had therefore accused Russia of war crimes and announced further sanctions.

Germany and France expelled dozens of Russian diplomats.

Sergey Lavrov wants to comment on the "true nature" of the events in Bucha

In Russia, there is a completely different way of portraying it: the country had already rejected the Western allegations as unfounded.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that his country plans to submit "documents" aimed at revealing the "true nature" of events in Bucha at a press conference at 9:30 p.m. CEST at the UN headquarters in New York.

He called the images of corpses "fake" and denounced a campaign of "propaganda" and "disinformation".

According to Russian authorities, the bodies were only found after the Russian troops had withdrawn on March 30.

However, images from the US satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies showed that some of the bodies were already lying on the streets of Bucha by mid-March.

Meanwhile, the human rights commissioner in the Ukrainian parliament, Lyudmyla Denizova, accused Russia of "inhumane treatment" of prisoners of war.

This was reported by Ukrainian soldiers recently released from Russian captivity.

Meanwhile, the US and UK are working on a suspension of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.

"We cannot allow a member state that is in the process of undermining all the principles we hold dear to participate in the UN Human Rights Council," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Twitter on Monday .

"The images of Bucha and the devastation across Ukraine are now forcing us to back our words with deeds."

Ukraine war: "Russia must be suspended"

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: "In the face of clear evidence of war crimes, including reports of mass graves and heinous slaughter in Bucha, Russia cannot remain a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

Russia must be suspended.”

The Russian ambassador to the UN, Wassily Nebensia, called the Western approach "incredible".

The West is trying to exclude Russia from "multilateral forums".

"This is unprecedented."

"This will not facilitate, encourage or help the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine," he said.

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, more than 400 bodies of civilians have been found in the areas around Kyiv that were formerly controlled by Russian troops.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the pictures from Bucha indicated "possible war crimes".