Russia dismissed at the UN the theory that a Ukrainian defensive missile, in the middle of a day of Russian bombing, fell by mistake on Polish territory and killed two people.
No mistake, said the Kremlin ambassador to the United Nations Security Council. The head of the Moscow mission, Vasily Nebenzia, blamed Ukraine and Poland for what happened, as they only sought to involve the Atlantic Alliance in the war.
"This is an attempt by Ukraine and Poland to provoke a direct clash between Russia and NATO," he stressed. "The completely irresponsible statements by the leaders of both countries cannot be interpreted in any other way," she added.
Nebenzia, in his combative line, in which half-truths and conspiracies are confused, critically alluded to the Ukrainian president, Volodir Zelenski, who on Tuesday continued to say that the missile was Russian, despite the general agreement that it was not so, and called for an international response against the government of Vladimir Putin.
Nebenzia specifically mentioned Zelensky's words in which he called for putting Russian terrorists in their place and in which he maintained that Russian missiles endanger NATO territory and collective security, and that he went so far as to proclaim that this was a very serious climb.
"These are statements made by a man who cannot say that he does not have access to information, because it was Ukrainian missiles from the defensive system that crossed the Polish border," the Russian envoy reiterated. “This means not only an attempt to misinform, but also a conscious attempt to implicate NATO,” he added.
Then he lashed out at "the Russophobic authorities" in Poland, who were not far from where the tragedy occurred and "made an unequivocal statement that they were the target of a Russian holdup," he accused.
Speaking in the penultimate turn of the fifteen council members, Nebenzia replied that "we have long ceased to be surprised by your attempts, under any circumstances, to blame Russia for anything."
He spoke like this because the Western bloc, while acknowledging that it was a mistake, insisted that this only happened because of the war unleashed by Putin, which is causing destruction and death. "Only one man sitting comfortably in Moscow can end this horrible and brutal war," added US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“Although we don't yet know all the facts, we do know one thing. This tragedy would never have happened without the unnecessary Russian invasion and recent missile assault on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure," Thomas-Greenfield stressed.
Other western countries, such as the United Kingdom, expressed themselves in the same vein. Also Poland, as a guest, followed this strategy. Her diplomatic representative remarked that without war there would have been no missile. He also defended, in line with its president Andrzej Duda, that the preliminary reports point to an unintentional act.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya did not rule on the responsibility of the event and said that Kyiv supports a complete and transparent investigation to establish all the factors.
China maintained its usual equidistance, although on this occasion its ambassador lamented that "the crisis is prolonging and expanding in a complex way, putting more stress on the already tense international situation."
The session of the Council began with the intervention of Rosemary DiCarlo, head of Political Affairs of the UN, who pointed to the error of this past Monday as the example that illustrates "the potentially catastrophic risks" of an escalation of war.
"This incident was a shocking reminder of the absolute necessity to prevent further escalation," he said. The possibility of “a spread of catastrophic consequences” to other areas is very real as long as the war continues, he warned.
