Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, has a recipe for stopping Vladimir Putin's invading hordes. The antidote is to reform the UN, given its inability to resolve conflicts. It is another request to try to transform an organization anchored in the bipolarity of 1945, still far from the current multipolar world.
Zelenski's plan for peace starts from withdrawing from Russia the privilege of sitting on the Security Council, the executive body of the United Nations Organization, and canceling its right to veto. "It is impossible to end the war because all efforts are vetoed by the aggressor", he emphasized shortly after starting a session that he attended in person. At no time, however, did the expected face-to-face between Zelenski and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Putin's main squire, take place.
The meeting began with the attempt of the Russian ambassador, Vassili Nebénzia, to prevent "the enemy" from taking the floor before any of the members of the Council.
The Russian accused the presidency of the body, exercised by Albania, represented by its prime minister, Edi Rama, of favoring "the show" of the Ukrainian. Rama retorted that "this is not a special operation" to bring Zelenski, referring to the euphemism Moscow uses to avoid talking about war. "It is very impressive that the indoctrination about the violation of the rules comes from you", insisted the Albanian. Given the ambassador's insistence, the other cut him off: "If Russia ended the war, Zelensky wouldn't be here."
The Ukrainian president stated that his country has the right to self-defense and that sending weapons for this task and imposing sanctions on Russia means defending the founding Charter of the UN.
Despite the interest he showed at the start, Nebénzia pretended to be distracted by looking at his phone during Zelenski's speech. Once he had finished, Lavrov entered. The Minister of Foreign Affairs justified the invasion of Ukraine and reiterated that the West staged a coup in this country to install a president favorable to its interests.
By that time Zelenski had already left the room, after lamenting that, unfortunately, “Russia is illegally occupying a seat on the Security Council through manipulations after the fall of the Soviet Union”, a seat that has been taken by “ liars with a job to whitewash Russia and the genocide it commits”.
Zelenski denounced the blockade of the UN due to Russia's misuse of its right to veto, to the detriment of other countries that lack fair representation. That is why he urged a reform and defended that the General Assembly has the ability to suspend and withdraw the right of veto whenever an aggressor makes use of it.
Zelenski argues that Moscow has violated the Charter that the organization adopted in 1945. More or less as if Hitler had usurped power and used the UN to get away with invasions and the Holocaust.
The Ukrainian proposed that a State be removed from the Council "when it resorts to aggression against another nation in violation of the UN Charter". "Our aspiration for peace must lead to reform. There are 574 reasons, the 574 days of war", he insisted.
At the same time that Zelenski was speaking at the Security Council in New York, a new front was opening in Warsaw for his statements the previous day, in which he had stated that "it is worrying that some in Europe are representing the role of the solidarity into political theater and turn cereals into a thriller. It would seem that they are playing their own roles, but what they are doing is helping to set the stage for an actor from Moscow."
Poland, one of the countries that has been most supportive of the Russian-invaded nation, but fears that Ukrainian agricultural might will harm Polish farmers, felt alluded to. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs "urgently" summoned the Ukrainian ambassador.
The Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs informed the Ukrainian ambassador that it is a "false and particularly unjustified thesis regarding Poland, which has supported Ukraine since the first days of the war", as indicated by the ministry in a statement. Poland hosts 1.6 million Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children.
During the last few days, the tension between Warsaw and Kyiv regarding the grain has grown. Brussels announced on Friday the lifting of the veto on the entry of Ukrainian grain, a measure granted in May to five countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria) to protect their farmers from the resulting destabilization of prices.
After the European Commission's announcement, Warsaw, Budapest and Bratislava immediately decreed unilateral embargoes, to which Kyiv responded on Monday with a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki warned on Wednesday that if Kyiv escalates the grain conflict, Poland will expand the list of banned Ukrainian products. Poland holds elections on October 15, and the agrarian vote is key to the continuity of Morawiecki's party, the ultra-nationalist Law and Justice (PiS).
