West Seeks to Politicize Ukraine’s Humanitarian Issues within UN — Lavrov

"We are interested in solving the problems that are piling up in Ukraine, as well as in removing artificial obstacles preventing the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid," the Russian top diplomat noted

© Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Western countries are making every effort to politicize humanitarian issues facing Ukraine on the United Nations platform, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer in Moscow on Thursday.

"We can see that our Western colleagues are making every effort within the United Nations in order to politicize humanitarian issues and turn them against Russia. Another proof of that emerged yesterday during a vote on a resolution submitted by Russia, which - if passed - could have helped solve many problems on the ground, including those that the ICRC team is facing in Ukraine," Lavrov pointed out.

"We are interested in solving the problems that are piling up in Ukraine, as well as in removing artificial obstacles preventing the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid," the Russian top diplomat noted.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to pass a Russian draft resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, co-sponsored by Belarus, North Korea and Syria. Russia and China voted in favor of the document, while the other 13 members of the UN Security Council (France, the UK, the US, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the UAE) abstained from voting. For a resolution to be passed, it needed to be supported by at least nine out of 15 UN Security Council members, without one of the five permanent members using their veto power.

Russia developed the document after France and Mexico had withdrawn their bid for a security council resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya pointed out that Moscow had sought to avoid politicizing the situation when working on the document and called for providing humanitarian assistance "to all parties," while the Western draft resolution had put all the blame on Russia.