Russian troops are already being moved to training grounds, schools are becoming draft centres; Russia’s Sergei Lavrov walks out on UN Security Council; Labor, Liberals could cut integrity commission deal. Follow updates here.
The UN Security Council gave Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov an icy reception when he went before it to defend his nation’s invasion of Ukraine. The veteran diplomat made sure he didn’t stick around to hear the criticism.
In a show of defiance toward Western condemnation, Lavrov arrived well after the council opened a special meeting to discuss the Ukraine conflict on Thursday . He gave his speech – accusing the West of forcing Russia to invade to protect itself – and then walked out. “He has left the chamber – I’m not surprised,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the members after Lavrov departed. “I don’t think Mr Lavrov wants to hear the collective condemnation of this council.”It was another moment of diplomatic drama at a venue that’s seen plenty of them over the years: the US-Soviet showdown during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962; US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 speech on Saddam Hussein’s weapons program; a Ukrainian envoy’s warning the day the invasion started on February 24 that war criminals “go straight to hell”. The scene was a familiar one for Lavrov, who was Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1994 to 2004, years when Russia and the US worked alongside each other in occasional comity and the council closed ranks around the US after the September 11 attacks. But Lavrov, foreign minister since he left the UN job, has stood by President Vladimir Putin’s side as he’s become more and more isolated by the West. His walkout highlighted the deep divisions that have emerged within the UN over that time. Those cracks were evident at this week’s annual gathering of the UN General Assembly, and underscored how Western condemnation of Russia isn’t universal. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking at the same session, kept up his nation’s support for Russia’s right to remain on the Security Council and in the UN despite some nations’ efforts to get it expelled. And perhaps more disheartening to the West, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar declined to call out Russia, instead urging a negotiated solution. India has declined to ally itself with the West’s campaign against Russia and has so far resisted a push to cut trade. In Lavrov’s telling, the Western condemnation simply amounted to a bid “to turn the world organisation into a forum for the demonisation of Russia and other countries that follow an independent line.”1 min ago
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