Ukraine boycotts UN Security Council meeting chaired by Russia

The Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations reported.

The Ukrainian delegation reaffirmed its position on the “illegitimacy of the occupation of the Soviet permanent seat in the Security Council by the Russian Federation”. They emphasized that they do not consider it possible to participate in Security Council meetings chaired by Russia unless there are justified reasons related to the necessity of bringing urgent information to the Council’s attention.

“The Delegation of Ukraine to the UN deplores yet another attempt by Russia to use the Council’s platform to whitewash its war of aggression against Ukraine and deny responsibility for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Russian troops have been committing in Ukraine. We deplore the current attempt, which will have further detrimental effects on the Council’s credibility, especially as Russia is making it from the chair’s seat,“ the statement said.

The Ukrainian delegation noted that this will be the sixteenth Council meeting since September 2022 called by Russia to address the contrived problem of “weapon supplies to Ukraine.” At such meetings, Russian representatives accuse Ukraine, which is a victim of aggression, of using weapons, including those provided by Ukraine's allies, to defend itself under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

At the same time, the Ukrainian delegation expects the UN Security Council members to clarify at the meeting “which lies the Russian delegation is going to spread further - Nebenzya's lies about the ‘single Ukrainian air defense missile’ or the lies of his boss Lavrov about the ‘remnants of a Russian missile shot down by Ukrainian air defense.’“ 

• On the morning of July 8, Russia launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine. In the Kyiv region, Kryvyi Rih, Pokrovsk, Dnipro and Kyiv, 38 people were killed and almost two hundred were wounded.

• In particular, in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, two floors of the Okhmatdyt hospital building were destroyed. Two adults (one of them a doctor) were killed, and 10 were injured. Several other buildings were damaged. 

• The Security Service of Ukraine found new evidence confirming that Russia struck the Okhmatdyt children's hospital with an Kh-101 cruise missile.

• On July 9, Health Minister Viktor Liashko said that 627 children were in the hospital when the Russian missile hit the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv.