West’s Unilateral Anti-Russian Sanctions Leading to Crisis of Historic Scale - Diplomat

The actual causes threatening the global food market with serious turbulence are not in Russia’s actions, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said

Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya EPA-EFE/PETER FOLEY

© EPA-EFE/PETER FOLEY

UNITED NATIONS, March 30. /TASS/. The West’s unilateral anti-Russian sanctions are leading to a global economic crisis of a historic scale, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said on Tuesday.

"The actual causes threatening the global food market with serious turbulence are not in Russia’s actions but rather is the unrestrained sanction hysteria the West has unleashed against Russia giving no thought either to the population of the countries of the so-called global south or to their own citizens. The attempt to isolate Russia economically, financially and logistically from the years-long cooperation channels is already entailing an economic crisis of the historic scale. It is clear even for an unsophisticated person that only the refusal from unilateral illegal restrictive measures can ease tensions in the transport and logistics, and financial ties, to ensure uninterrupted supplies and to stabilize international agricultural and food markets," he said.

International liabilities

Russia is strictly committed to its international liabilities and will guarantee security to those Ukrainian troops who will opt to surrender arms, Nebenzia said.

"Russian side fully upholds its international obligations and poses no threat to those Ukrainians who lay down their arms," he told a UN Security Council session on humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

The diplomat said that the Russian resolution, put to vote last week, contained a demand to ensure "respectful and humane treatment of detainees." It was due to "videos of cruel treatment of captured Russian soldiers" posted by Ukrainian nationalists online, Nebenzya continued, asking other participants of the meeting whether they saw those videos.

On Monday, videos emerged on the Internet purportedly showing Ukrainian radical nationalists torturing captive Russian servicemen. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that those involved in the torture of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine must be held accountable for their actions.

Humanitarian pauses

The West is demonstrating inconsistence and hypocrisy when it demands humanitarian pauses in Ukraine, Nebenzia said.

He noted that "many calls have been voiced [at the UNSC meeting] for a humanitarian ceasefire, for providing humanitarian access, for humanitarian pauses and humanitarian corridors." "[UN] Secretary General [Antonio] Guterres came out with the corresponding initiatives yesterday," he said.

"Colleagues, it is hard not to be astonished at your inconsistence," he went on to say. "Last Wednesday, the majority [of UNSC] turned down Russia’s draft of a humanitarian resolution binding on all the parties with a concrete lost of steps to be made to resolve the humanitarian crisis, first of all in eastern Ukraine. Bearing this in mind, today’s statements, especially by the Western delegations, sound quite cynical.".

UN vehicles’ participation in Ukrainian military action

Russia is seeking explanations into why a UN vehicle with diplomatic license plates was used in combat near the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, Nebenzya said.

"Good thing the UN Security Council eventually recognized such violations in Kharkov and Mariupol," Nebenzya said. "We are expecting a response to our latest request, regarding a UN vehicle with diplomatic license plates DP210015 <…> near Kharkov, which, according to eyewitnesses, took part in combat operations of Ukrainian nationalists."

"We have also been informed about use of OSCE vehicles by radicals," Nebenzya added. "It is important that both organizations give a fair evaluation of similar facts.".

Medical vehicles

Russia sees the possibility of Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine, carried out with the use of vehicles with medical symbols, Nebenzya said.

"We cannot rule out that under the guise of vehicles of those organizations [UN and OSCE], or vehicles with medical symbols, nearby countries may import weapons, which the West promised to Kiev so generously," he said.

Kiev’s crackdown on public activists

Russia is concerned by reports of the Kiev government’s crackdown on opposition journalists, politicians and public figures, Nebenzya said.

"In the context of Ukrainian radicals and special services’ harsh treatment of their own citizens, we have serious concerns about the Kiev government’s ongoing purge of public figures, who are out of their favor," he said.

As examples, Nebenzya mentioned the abduction of civil activist Yelena Berezhnaya and reports about disappearances of opposition politician Vasily Volgin, political analysts Dmitry Dzhangirov and Yuri Dudkin, journalists Dmitry Skvortsov and Yuri Tkachev.