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Russians Warn of War


FILE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on "Effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations," at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., April 24, 2023.
FILE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on "Effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations," at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., April 24, 2023.

UNITED NATIONS HQ, NEW YORK - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose nation currently chairs the UN Security Council, warned that body Monday that the world was at a threshold "possibly even more dangerous" than during the Cold War.

"As during the Cold War, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold," Lavrov said. "The situation is worsened with the loss of trust in multilateralism."

"Let's call a spade a spade. Nobody allowed the Western minority to speak on behalf of all of humankind," Lavrov said.

Lavrov's statements came as a series of Security Council members, including the United States, France and Britain, condemned Russia for its war on Ukraine.

"Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbor Ukraine and struck at the heart of the U.N. Charter," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council.

"This illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most sacred principle: that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable," she said.

Thomas-Greenfield also accused Russia of violating international law by wrongfully detaining Americans, calling for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan. Whelan's sister, Elizabeth, was in the Security Council chamber on Monday.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak on Tuesday dismissed as "hypocrisy" comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN.

"An impeccable hypocrisy fair, Lavrov chairs the UNSC justifying war, mass killings, total destruction... with 'international law'," Podolyak said on Twitter in a tweet that was confirmed to AFP by a presidency official.

Russia "plainly humiliates democracy, freedom, conventions," he wrote.

Ahead of Monday's meeting, Lavrov said the United Nations system was "enduring a profound crisis" and accused Western countries, particularly the United States, of being responsible.

"It's not all about Ukraine," he told reporters.

"It's about how international relations will continue to be shaped through the establishment of a sound consensus on the basis of balance of interests or through aggressive and volatile advancement of Washington's hegemony," Lavrov added.

This report was sourced from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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