The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to declare that the Russian Federation is grossly violating the UN Charter with its military aggression in Eastern Ukraine and illegal occupation of Crimea, and blatantly disregards human rights, particularly those of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.
In the prepared text of the UN Secretary-General’s speech distributed at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on 16 June 2016, as reported by “Reuters Canada” and “Associated Press”, it read that Russia “has a critical role to play … in addressing other pressing global issues, from ending the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, to safeguarding human rights and controlling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”
The delivered speech, as noted by “Reuters Canada” and “Associated Press”, was slightly different. In it the UN Secretary-General did not mention Ukraine, but said that Moscow “has a very important role to play and I really count heavily on the leadership of the Russian Federation.”
The participation of the UN Secretary-General in the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg during a period of targeted sanctions against the Russian Federation in response to its blatant violations of the Minsk agreements, and his promotion of the Russian Federation, that the international community treats as an aggressor state, are reminiscent of the policies of appeasement that led to the Second World War.
“The Ukrainian World Congress calls upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to retract his comments with respect to the Russian Federation in both the prepared and delivered texts of his speech to the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg and instead to call upon the Russian Federation to comply with the UN Charter and its fundamental principles, and specifically, to end the military aggression in Eastern Ukraine and de-occupy Crimea,” commented UWC President Eugene Czolij.
