Russia will propose its own “humanitarian resolution” on Ukraine at the UN

United Nations, 15 Mar After blocking a project promoted by France and Mexico, Russia announced Tuesday that it will propose to the UN Security Council its own resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, which will call for a negotiated ceasefire and condemn attacks against civilians, among other things. The Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vasili Nebenzia, told reporters that the text will be ready to be voted on soon and that it will be an exclusively “humanitarian” resolution. In this regard, Nebenzia argued that the document proposed by France and Mexico, which was the subject of several rounds of negotiations between Council members, contained paragraphs that were not humanitarian and which Moscow could not accept. “We said from the beginning that we were ready to adopt a humanitarian resolution on the situation in Ukraine, provided that it was not a pretext to blame Russia,” the diplomat said. Nebenzia advanced that the Russian draft will contain “clear humanitarian provisions” concerning a call for a negotiated ceasefire, evacuation of civilians, respect for international humanitarian and human rights laws and a condemnation of attacks against civilians. Faced with the impossibility of approving its text in the Security Council, French and Mexicans announced yesterday that they will take it to the UN General Assembly, where Russia does not have veto power and the resolution is expected to be adopted with a large majority. Nebenzia today criticized that decision and charged what he called “hysteria” at the United Nations over Russian actions in Ukraine, which have been condemned by a clear majority of Member States. The representative of Moscow also directly attacked the head of the UN, António Guterres, considering that he is being partial to this conflict. Among other things, he was accused of not saying anything about a missile launched on Monday by Ukrainian forces on the separatist region of Donetsk, which according to the pro-Russian local authorities left at least 23 dead. Guterres, who was asked about the incident yesterday by a journalist, said that if civilians had been intentionally attacked this was condemnable, but stressed that most civilian deaths so far in the war are the result of Russian actions.