The UN commemorates the two years of war in Ukraine with a low profile due to the diversion of world attention to Gaza

The Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmitro Kuleba (center), this Friday with other European counterparts after the session of the UN General Assembly.Ángel Colmenares (EFE)

Double day this Friday at the UN headquarters in New York on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Ukrainian war.

An extraordinary session of the General Assembly, followed by another of the Security Council, with the participation of Foreign Ministers, to once again condemn the Russian invasion, advocate diplomacy as the only solution and testify support for kyiv against the aggressor.

Nothing new in the last 24 months, but a notable difference: the low profile of the commemoration, almost muted.

The war between Israel and Hamas has diverted the focus of international attention and altered the balance of forces: therefore, unlike February 2023, when the Ukrainian delegation to the UN presented a resolution - adopted by a large majority - demanding of “a broad, just and lasting peace”, this year there have only been speeches.

The scenario is not the same: President Volodymyr Zelensky is committed to his 10-point peace plan, Republicans torpedo military aid to Ukraine in the US Congress, and US support for Israel in its offensive on Gaza raised fears. to many in the UN that a text like the one adopted last year with 141 votes in favor (out of a total of 193) would obtain less support today.

For the so-called global south, the situation in the Middle East has put in black and white what many consider the West's double standard: unanimous condemnation of the Russian offensive on Ukraine, but unreserved support for Israel on the part of the US, the United Kingdom and Germany, among other Western powers, despite the loss of civilian victims in the Strip.

The UN has adopted four resolutions since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2022. None in the Security Council, which, as in the case of the Gaza war, remains blocked by the old mechanism of law veto (Russia's has frustrated any initiative on Ukraine, and the US's now torpedoes all those that undermine Israel).

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, recalled this in an appearance before journalists after addressing the Assembly: “There have already been four resolutions, and I believe that this is already the guide on which we have to work, where the voice of the international community has been clear and therefore there is no need to repeat it year after year.

What I do believe is that this year the situation in Gaza has been introduced and there are many countries in what is now called the global south that sometimes see two weights, two measures [Ukraine and Israel], that is the environment that I have been able to touch and the conversations I have been able to have with some of my colleagues.

Maybe that's the biggest difference between this year and last.

This is not the case of Spain.”

The principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of States remain as valid as they were a year ago with regard to Ukraine.

Also the complete and immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and the return "to the internationally recognized borders", according to the Foreign Minister, who recalled how in these two years the war has crossed the borders and directly hit Spain, with death. from the aid worker Emma Igual.

Albares also highlighted the increase in Spain's financial support for the International Criminal Court, given that "there can be no impunity for criminal acts carried out by Russia against civilians."

Nor will the murder of the Russian deserter pilot executed last week in Alicante, according to the Spanish intelligence services, by order of the Russian authorities, go unpunished, he assured.

“It is an issue that I am following very closely due to the implications it could have.

The scientific police are carrying out their investigation and I have asked to be informed.

Of course, the response will be commensurate with the acts that have been committed.”

Kuleba: “Ukraine will win the war”

The session of the General Assembly was substantiated by Switzerland's confirmation that it will host a high-level peace conference on Ukraine "between now and the summer."

Amid clear signs of war fatigue, and when Russia recovers lost ground at the hands of the Ukrainian Army (as demonstrated by episodes such as the taking of Avdiivka and the current Robotine siege), the confirmation of the Swiss proposal, formulated this Friday by His Foreign Minister, Ignazio Cassis, has been the most notable thing of the morning, although not a novelty.

The Swiss call responds to a request from Ukraine to relaunch Zelensky's peace plan, which contemplates the territorial integrity of the country, the withdrawal of all Russian troops, the protection of food and energy supplies, nuclear security and liberation of all prisoners of war.

“Russia cannot ignore the voice of the global majority if we all take a principled stand and act together.

The peace formula represents exactly that opportunity,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Assembly, without the resonance of previous occasions.

Zelensky's peace formula, “the only serious proposal on the table”, also has the support of the Spanish Foreign Minister.

To the skeptics, or at least those who accuse war fatigue, Kuleba wanted to prove them wrong.

“Ukraine will win the war,” he declared, urging nations to support his country.

If they do, he said, victory will come “sooner rather than later.”

The response from the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, was immediate, demonstrating the diplomatic stalemate in which the conflict finds itself.

“We must not waste time on kyiv's futile plans to negotiate on the basis of the so-called Zelinski peace formula,” Nebenzia said.

“It is nothing more than an ultimatum to Russia and an attempt to attract as many countries as possible to endless meetings about this utopian project.”

With his usual argument - he has not changed one bit since February 2022 - Nebenzia blamed the West for fomenting the conflict, accused Ukraine of being an instrument of Western geopolitical ambitions and promised that Russia's "special military operation" - the official euphemism that masks the war - will not end until its objectives are achieved, among others, the demilitarization of Ukraine and the achievement of a “neutral status”, far from NATO (and the EU).

However, the most notable thing about the double call has been the fear, patent but at the same time very express, that the international community will split between the West that closes ranks around Ukraine and the other that unreservedly supports Israel.

In addition to the blockage caused by the right of veto, the shadow of the suspicion of the global south that there are two yardsticks could be a new waterway in the UN.

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