Vasily Nebenzya, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has said that Russia aims to impair Ukraine’s military potential in order to force it to negotiate on what he describes as more realistic terms.
Speaking at the latest UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2022, summoned due to Russia’s massive strikes of Ukraine’s infrastructure including critical energy facilities, he openly admitted why Russia is bombing Ukraine.
“One of the goals of the special military operation is to undermine the Ukrainian army’s combat capabilities. And it will be attained by military means until the Kyiv regime takes a realistic position, which will make it possible to discuss and try to settle those problems, which have prompted us to launch the special military operation,” he said.
Claiming that Western military aid is flooding the country, and describing the calls for Kyiv to defeat Russia as reckless, Nebenzya emphasized that Russian forces are deliberately bombing Ukraine’s infrastructure facilities.
He also claimed that NATO and Ukraine’s so-called Western sponsors are “deriving colossal profit from the war in Ukraine,” and use Ukrainians to test NATO weapons and establish hegemony in the region.
Speaking to the security council, President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that the barrages of missiles are the Russian formula of terror and called for Russia to be denied a vote on any decision concerning its actions.
“We cannot be hostage to one international terrorist,” he said. “Russia is doing everything to make an energy generator a more powerful tool than the UN Charter.”
While Russia’s actions prompted condemnation from the U.S. permanent representative to the UN and Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary- General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, warned of the devastation caused by Russia’s relentless attacks, it is unlikely that the UN Security Council will take any action.
Despite widespread backlash, the UN has so far refused to introduce any drastic reforms that would deprive Russia of its veto or temporarily suspend it. To find out more on the issue, watch the interview with Ukraine’s permanent representative to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsia.
