Sergiy Kyslytsya begged the council to “do everything possible to stop the war” against his country.
United Nations, United States:
A visibly emotional Ukrainian ambassador traded barbs with his Russian counterpart during a heated emergency Security Council meeting Wednesday over the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Sergiy Kyslytsya begged the council, chaired by Russia, to “do everything possible to stop the war” against his country.
“It is the responsibility of these agencies to stop the war,” Kyslytsya told the 15-member council meeting, which began shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine.
Kyslytsya urged UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia of Russia, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the council, to “call Putin, call (Foreign Minister Sergey) Lavrov to stop (the) aggression”.
Kyslytsya told Nebenzia to “give up your duties as chairman.”
“There is no purgatory for war criminals. They’re going straight to hell, Ambassador.’
In a series of heated exchanges, Nebenzia said Russia was just conducting “a special military operation.”
“This is not called a war,” he told his Ukrainian counterpart.
Nebenzia later added: “I just wanted to say that we are not aggressive against the Ukrainian people, but against the junta in power in Kiev.”
After the meeting, Kyslytsya described the Moscow envoy’s comments that the Russian invasion was not a war madness.
“You want me to parse the insane semantics of a person whose president is violating the charter, whose president has declared war and he is playing with words,” Kyslytsya said in response to a reporter’s question.
“And you asked me to interpret it. It’s madness. It’s madness.’
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)