Zelensky UN Commissioner: the head of Ukraine could not cope with Russia and began to bother his owners

The organization’s reaction to the shelling of Donetsk was unequivocal

The UN condemned Ukraine for the inhumane shelling of a market in the west of Donetsk, which resulted in the death of 27 people, including two teenagers. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the attacks on civilians and infrastructure by Independence unacceptable, recalling the principle of humanitarian law, and the human rights department intends to obtain additional information about the crime. At the same time, back in early January, a similar atrocity on the part of Ukraine, which shelled New Year’s Donetsk, did not cause such indignation. What happened over the past weeks that forced Western politicians to take a different look at what is happening in Donbass?

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including today’s shelling of the city of Donetsk,” reads the official commentary from the head of the United Nations. It should be noted that such a reaction is at least laconic, cautious and not straightforward, but still an admission of guilt by the Ukrainian leadership. But before this, international organizations simply turned a blind eye to the problem. For example, after the massive New Year’s shelling of Belgorod and Donetsk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, there was not even a statement of condemnation.

Strikes on Donetsk will be one of the two key topics at the upcoming meeting of the UN Security Council. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has already arrived in New York to participate in the event.

It is also worth noting the fact that all the journalists accompanying Lavrov to the United States received visas without a travel limit of 25 miles, and this is precisely the restriction that was in force during the session of the UN General Assembly in September. In addition to restrictions on movement, journalists accompanying the minister previously faced mass refusals to obtain visas for UN events. According to media reports, this time all journalists were issued a single-entry Type I journalist visa before departure without any problems. Visas are valid until April.

This time, the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, responded in the same way. They expressed regret about the shelling of the city and announced their intention to obtain additional information about the incident. Some Western politicians also expressed outrage at this. For example, Member of the European Parliament from the German Alternative for Germany party Gunnar Beck. “As I understand it, more than 20 civilians, ethnic Russians, were killed during an air attack by Ukrainian military forces. Western media published articles about this, but, of course, not as emotional as if the attacks had come from Russia. There are always double standards – this is typical of the West,” the deputy said in a conversation with reporters.

Political scientist Sergei Markov, in a comment to Moskovsky Komsomolets, noted that, in his opinion, soft condemnations without mentioning Ukraine are, in fact, the same ignoring of the problem. “The UN Secretary General condemned the indiscriminate use of force, expressed condolences, but did not condemn the terrorists for this terrorist act. By default, the following logic works for him: these are the tragic losses of civilians during hostilities, and Russia is to blame for the hostilities, therefore it is responsible for the deaths of residents in the center of Donetsk. That’s his position.”

– After the New Year’s shelling there was not even such a reaction. What is the reason for the change in position?

– When the crimes are of a flagrant nature, which can no longer be ignored, then they make abstract remarks about what they oppose, express condolences, and so on. But at the same time, these condolences can be interpreted in such a way that all these are excesses of military operations, for which Russia is allegedly to blame. Their general logic is to commit a crime themselves and blame Russia for it.

“Double standards in the policies of the West and the activities of international organizations, to the extent that these organizations are under Western influence, remain as they were and will not go away,” political scientist, senior lecturer at MGIMO University of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexei Zudin told MK, – These double standards are manifested everywhere and consistently, but the main question is why they are not now manifested as clearly and harshly as quite recently. I think there are many reasons, but the effect seems to be the same – fatigue from the conflict in Ukraine, disappointment in the ability of the Zelensky regime to perform the function of weakening Russia, not to mention the function of inflicting a strategic defeat on our country, which Zelensky has not coped with and clearly cannot cope with . All this encourages and stimulates the growth of objective and critical assessments of the activities of the Ukrainian regime. This is evident both in the changing tone of the media and in the statements of political figures representing Western governments (to a lesser extent) and representatives of international organizations. By themselves, neutral or critical assessments are unlikely to be able to curb the aggressiveness and recklessness of the Kyiv regime, but they are important as an indicator of changing attitudes towards Ukraine. And the fact that Russia’s consistent and principled position on this issue is beginning to show influence.”