Zelenskyy calls Russia ‘terrorist state’ at tense UN Security Council meeting
Global News
Before the meeting started, there was intense speculation about whether Zelenskyy and Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, would clash, speak or totally avoid each other.
Ukraine’s president accused Russia of waging “a criminal and unprovoked aggression” that undermines all norms of war and the U.N. Charter at a meeting Wednesday of the U.N. Security Council that started with a clash over his speech.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the council that he would not have come if he did not have a proposal to end the 19-month war, starting with adherence to the charter that ensures the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all 193 U.N. member nations. He stressed that restoration of all Ukrainian territory is the key to peace.
Before the meeting started, there was intense speculation about whether Zelenskyy and Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, would clash, speak or totally avoid each other. But no confrontation happened because Zelenskyy left the council soon after his address.
The verbal fireworks began at the start of the meeting, before Lavrov arrived, when Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia protested the council president’s decision to allow Zelenskyy to speak ahead of the 15 council members.
He said Albanian President Edi Rama, this month’s council president, was trying to turn the meeting into “a one-man stand-up show,” adding that it would be “nothing more than a spectacle” — a dig at Zelenskyy’s past as a comedian.
Rama cited the council rule allowing a nonmember to speak first adding, to laughter, that “this is not a special operation by the Albanian presidency,” a dig at Russia’s insistence on referring to its offensive against Ukraine as a “special military operation.”
After another heated exchange over whether Nebenzia had referred to Rama as Albania’s prime minister and a NATO member instead of as the council president, Rama declared: “I take note, and we’ll continue with our session.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres then briefed the council, reiterating that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was “in clear violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.”
Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through a plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, pausing demands for a debt limit increase
Identified by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy specialist, authorities said he has been living in Germany for two decades.
The driver of the car was arrested, said German news agency dpa, citing unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The attack took place around 9:50 a.m. on the last day of school before Christmas at the Precko Elementary School in Zagreb.
The charges filed against Yaoning “Mike” Sun followed those against a former aide to two New York governors, Linda Sun, in September.
Putin used the tightly choreographed event, which lasted over 4 hours, to reinforce his authority and demonstrate a sweeping command.
The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at 4.75 per cent with new data showing inflation rising to 2.6 per cent, further above the bank's two per cent target.
A U.K. police force went to court to claim the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the Tates and a woman identified only as J.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
A Texas-based company is pulling several of its products off the shelves after the FDA discovered a potentially deadly ingredient in product samples.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed as he left for his office. His assistant also died.