Russia’s Lavrov condemned while chairing United Nations Security Council
Joel Gehrke
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov faced a chorus of condemnations over the invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations Security Council, where he sought to cast Moscow as the defender of international law while chairing the proceedings despite Russia’s attempt to seize Ukrainian territory.
“None of the pretexts invoked to attack Ukraine in violation of the U.N. Charter has legal merit, not one of them,” said Hernan Perez Loose, Ecuador’s ambassador to the United Nations, through a U.N. interpreter.
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The Ecuadorian envoy’s broadside marred the intentions of Lavrov, who sought to position Russia as a defender of international law while casting the United States and its European allies as a domineering political clique. Although that argument found an echo in some quarters, China the most notable among them, Lavrov was also surrounded by condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Tensions between major powers are at an historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the opening of the debate. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law, is causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people and adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
That rebuke set an uncomfortable predicate for Lavrov, who accused Western states of pursuing “the parochial interests of the [golden] billion” — immediately after Guterres’s presentation.
“Let’s call a spade a spade: Nobody allowed the Western minority to speak on behalf of all of humankind,” Lavrov said. “The Russian Federation has clearly announced the goals which we are pursuing through the special military operation to eradicate the threats to our security which were created for years by NATO representatives directly on our borders.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered by touting the United Nations General Assembly’s passage in March of a resolution that demanded Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine by a vote of 141-5, with 35 countries abstaining.
“Russia simply wants to redraw international borders by force, in violation of this very U.N. Charter,” she said. “This does not just concern Ukraine or Europe. It concerns all of us. Because today it’s Ukraine. But tomorrow it could be another country. Another small nation that is invaded by its larger neighbor. And what would we want this council to do in response? Sit on our hands? No. It is the very reason the U.N. Charter was written in the first place.”
It was easier for Lavrov to find fellow critics of the United States than any overt support for Russia’s invasion. Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun buttressed Lavrov’s attack on Western powers by renewing Beijing’s complaint about the U.S. and Europe’s use of economic sanctions as a tool of foreign policy.
“We must act immediately to improve the global governance system,” Zhang said. “Unilateral sanctions indiscriminately imposed by the United States and other countries outside the council mandate are entirely for maintaining their hegemony, technology, gold monopoly, and ideology.”
Russian envoys have worked throughout the war to cultivate diplomatic ties in the developing world, particularly Africa, where Moscow tries to portray the war in Ukraine as a contemporary struggle against Western imperialism. The fruits of that effort were on display early in the debate, albeit through diplomatic niceties rather than an endorsement.
“Mozambique wishes to reiterate our hearty congratulations to Russia’s assumption of the presidency for the Security Council,” Mozambican Ambassador Pedro Comissario Afonso gushed. “We are delighted to see you presiding over this session.”
Yet Perez Loose’s extended denunciation of the war made clear that Russia does not speak for the entire Global South.
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“How could we neglect to recognize Russia’s vast contribution, including that made by its major cultural torchbearers — Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, or Pasternak?” Perez Loose asked.
“But is there any way we could imagine, for even a minute, that those cultural envoys would be in agreement with the death and pain that this absurd war is inflicting upon millions of people?”