Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has made an emotional appeal to the countries of the world to strongly condemn Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. “Today we all have to choose between peace and aggression, between justice and the will of the strongest, between acting and looking the other way,” said the Green politician on Tuesday evening at the emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
She accused Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of abusing Russia’s power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. “Your tanks won’t bring water. Their shells bring no food for babies. Their tanks bring no peace. Their tanks bring death and destruction,” Baerbock said. “You can fool yourself. But you will not fool us and not our population. And they will not deceive their own people.”
[Alle aktuellen Nachrichten zum russischen Angriff auf die Ukraine bekommen Sie mit der Tagesspiegel-App live auf ihr Handy. Hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen]
Even before the speech by the German Foreign Minister in New York, several UN diplomats were protesting against the Russian war in Ukraine. When Lavrov began his speech at the UN Human Rights Council a few hours earlier, dozens of people left the Geneva hall. The action was coordinated by the German Ambassador Katharina Stasch, among others.
“The Human Rights Council must not be misused as a platform for disinformation,” said Stasch afterwards. “Foreign Minister Lavrov’s grotesque claims must be exposed for what they are: a cynical distortion of the facts.”
Lavrov, who was connected via video link, read a lengthy statement in which he justified the attack on Ukraine with human rights violations on the Ukrainian side. In his speech, Lavrov accused Ukraine of years of terrorizing members of the Russian minority.
Baerbock accuses Russia of “lying”.
In New York, the German Foreign Minister sharply accused Moscow of “lying”: “You say you are acting in self-defense. But the whole world has watched as you spent months building up your troops to prepare for this attack.”
While Russia has asserted that it wants to protect the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, it is apparent that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s troops are bombing homes of Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
Before her appearance, Baerbock had said that it was about making it clear that the world community did not accept aggressive war: “In a question of war and peace, nobody can be neutral”. You have to decide whether you’re on the side of the aggressor or on the side of “families, of children hiding in subway tunnels from bombing and rocket attacks.”
[Alle aktuellen Entwicklungen zum Ukraine-Krieg lesen Sie hier in unserem Newsblog.]
In the hall, Baerbock then appealed to the representatives of the 192 other UN member states in the General Assembly to support an upcoming vote on Wednesday on a resolution directed against Russia.
“When we go home after our vote, each of us will have to sit across the kitchen table from our children, our partners, our friends, our families. Then each of us must look them in the eye and tell them what choice we made.” It is about nothing less than the life and death of the Ukrainian people, the security of Europe and the charter of the United Nations.
Russia is to be isolated worldwide
Western states hope that when the General Assembly votes, as many of the 193 member countries as possible will condemn Russia’s war of aggression and thus make visible the global isolation of the Russian leadership. It is only the eleventh emergency meeting in more than 70 years – it has been decades since the last such meeting.
[Lesen Sie auch: Osteuropa-Historiker Karl Schlögel: „Putin will auch den Westen in die Knie zwingen“ (T+)]
The minimum goal is to beat the votes for a 2014 resolution invalidating a Russian referendum in Crimea. At that time, 100 member states voted for the text.
After her speech, Foreign Minister Baerbock met UN chief Guterres, among others, for talks. According to the United Nations, it was mainly about the war in Ukraine. She wanted to leave New York again on Wednesday. (dpa)
