The main topic of the UN Security Council meeting on 6 June was the situation in Ukraine. Representatives of the countries paid special attention to the issue of violence and human trafficking. Pramila Patten, the UN’s Special Envoy for Sexual Violence in Conflicts, said that the international organization is investigating 124 reports.
The violence allegedly took place in the regions of Chernihiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Lugansk, Nikolaev, Vinnytsia, Zaporozhye, as well as in the Zakarpattia and Zhytomyr regions.
Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, said that the Russian side did not commit such crimes. He cited various acts of violence by Ukrainian nationalists as an example.
One of them was a criminal case initiated by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation against the senior lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Sergey Batynsky. In early April, as Nebenzya said, the Ukrainian army detained a married couple in Mariupol and raped her in front of her husband. He was killed when the man tried to mediate.
Serhiy Kislitsa, Permanent Representative of Ukraine, took the floor after Nebenzya. He said that citizens of various regions of Ukraine turned to law enforcement with complaints about the violence of the Russian army. Kislitsa also called on Moscow not to make any concessions.
In addition, the President of the European Council Charles Michel made a speech. According to him, European countries are assisting the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in collecting evidence of the crimes of the Russian army “which must be brought to justice”.
“We are hearing reports that Russian forces are using violence, sexual violence as a weapon of war. Sexual violence is a war crime. This is a tactic of torture, terror and oppression,” said Michel, adding that the EU should help and protect Ukrainian women and children.
After that he got into the food crisis and turned to Nebenza, talking about the EU not imposing sanctions on Russian grain: “Maybe you want to get out of the hall, it’s probably easier not to listen to the truth. ”
The Russian ambassador did indeed leave the hall. Nebenzi’s first deputy, Dmitry Polyansky, wrote on his Telegram channel that the President of the European Council used a “loose and rude” rhetoric, which is why the Russian side protested at the meeting. “It’s surprising that the EU and its leaders have fallen so low,” he said.
Polyansky added that the Europeans did not present any evidence to support their accusations.
The maximum evidence in the performance of our Western and Ukrainian colleagues is “Russian soldiers rape women everywhere”. And that’s all. It’s so obvious that nothing needs to be proven. Not a single example was given,” he says.
As for food exports from Ukraine, on June 2, Nebenzya announced Russia’s requirement to ensure the safe passage of Ukrainian ships with grain: Ukraine must clear mine crossings to ships. He stressed that these are not Russian but Ukrainian mines.
After the results of the negotiations between Turkey and Russia, Ukraine and the UN representatives, a roadmap was prepared for the “grain corridor” studies. This is expected to prevent a global food crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Moscow did not interfere in this process and announced ways to export grain: through the Ukrainian ports of the Black Sea basin, through Belarus, but for this it is necessary to lift sanctions from the republic.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to export grain with the help of Minsk. “We were offered to go through Belarus by train. We even realize how much. But we understand why it was offered to us. “We are not yet ready to follow this format.”