“You will not deceive us”
Baerbock accuses Russia of “blatant lies”.
03/01/2022, 11:38 p.m
Before the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Baerbock calls for a unanimous condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s attack marks a turning point. “Your tanks don’t bring peace. Your tanks bring death and destruction,” says the Green politician in her speech.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has made an emotional appeal to the countries of the world to strongly condemn Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. “Today we all have to choose between peace and aggression, between justice and the will of the strongest, between acting and looking the other way,” said the Green politician in the evening at the emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. She accused Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of abusing Russia’s power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Russia had “brutally attacked” the international peace order, said Baerbock. “That’s why this war is not just about Ukraine, not just about Europe, but about all of us. Russia’s war marks the beginning of a new era. It’s a turning point.”
Baerbock spoke to the largest UN body about Moscow’s “brazen lies”: “You say you are acting in self-defense. But the whole world has watched as you have built up your troops for months to prepare for this attack.” And while Russia insists that it wants to protect the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, the entire world sees Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s troops bombing homes of Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
“Their tanks bring death and destruction”
“Your tanks don’t bring water. Your tanks don’t bring food for babies. Your tanks don’t bring peace. Your tanks bring death and destruction,” Baerbock said to Lavrov. “You can fool yourself. But you won’t fool us and you won’t fool our people. And you won’t fool your own people.”
The Foreign Minister appealed to the representatives of the 192 other UN member states in the General Assembly to support an upcoming vote on a resolution directed against Russia on Wednesday. “When we go home after our vote, each of us will have to sit at the kitchen table across from our children, our partners, our friends, our families. Then each of us will have to look them in the eye and tell them the choice we made. ” It is about nothing less than the life and death of the Ukrainian population, the security of Europe and the United Nations Charter.
Western states hope that as many of the 193 member countries as possible will condemn Russia’s war of aggression at the emergency session of the General Assembly, thereby making visible the global isolation of the Russian leadership. This is only the eleventh emergency meeting in more than 70 years. The minimum goal is to beat the votes for a 2014 resolution invalidating a Russian referendum in Crimea. At that time, 100 member states voted for the text.