The list of speakers at the General Debate of the 77th UN General Assembly session on Friday included the president of the European Council Charles Michel, as well as Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and his Dutch colleague Mark Rutte. All of them started their speeches with the topic of Ukraine.
According to Charles Michel, the Kremlin is leading a hybrid war that “combines violence with poisonous lies." Michel dismissed Russia’s allegations that Kiev has been committing genocide against the Russian-speaking population in Donbass and spoke about stories of “rape, torture and mass graves,” for which he blames Moscow, and which he claimed to have heard while visiting Ukraine.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his respect for Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy in ending the Cold War. He also said that “Russia stands on the wrong side of history” and that its “aggression must be stopped.”
According to Rutte, Moscow’s special military operation was unprovoked, as he added, “Russia is not a victim, it is an aggressor – no one was invading Russia, no one was threatening Russian people.” His view was echoed by Charles Michel, who also said that “no one threatened or attacked Russia.”
Willingly or not, both Rutte and Michel, however, have failed to mention the 8 years which preceded Moscow’s direct involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, when OSCE constantly reported the shelling of peaceful citizens in Donetsk by the Kiev regime, or atrocities committed by the Ukrainian army against ethnic Russians in Donbass, with hundreds of human remains found in the Luhansk People’s Republic in March this year by Russia’s Investigative Committee.
Another fact, which both Charles Michel and Mark Rutte have omitted, is NATO's eastwards expansion, which has continued throughout the post-Gorbachev era and doesn't look like it is stopping anytime soon, with Finland and Sweden waiting for the ratification of their NATO applications and Kiev refusing to abandon hopes of joining the alliance - something, which may bring NATO troops to Russian borders, and which is obviously seen as a threat by Moscow.
But despite all the anti-Russia rhetoric at the UN General Assembly, Moscow is far from isolated, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held dozens of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the main event with politicians from Asia, Africa, the Arab world, Latin America and Europe.
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have also had BRICS talks on the sidelines of UN GA.
On Friday, Lavrov held talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. Perhaps Serbia’s own experience of being sanctioned and bombed by the US and NATO in 1999, when around 500 peaceful Serbs lost their lives, has played a role in the country’s current moderate position on the Ukraine issue.
When asked by the Russian media whether Serbia will introduce sanctions against Moscow, Vučić’s response was negative:
"They haven’t been implemented, and I'm hoping they won't be" – he told reporters.
Lavrov has also met with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó, with whom he discussed gas contracts and the plans of Russia’s Rosatom corporation to build the Paks nuclear plant in Hungary. Hungary depends on Moscow’s energy supplies, as the country receives most of its oil and gas from Russia.
On Thursday, Sergey Lavrov delivered a speech at a United Nations Security Council ministerial meeting on Ukraine, highlighting the "impunity" and "lawlessness" of the Kiev regime for the crimes committed against Russian-speaking citizens in Donbass after the Maidan coup d’etat in 2014 and in the 8 years which followed. On Saturday, Sergey Lavrov is expected to speak at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.