UN Security Council meeting on the Il-76 crash: Missed chance for the Russian delegation
The UN Security Council meeting, convened at Russia's insistence and dedicated to the crash of the Il-76 carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war, left the impression of a missed opportunity. Alas, Russian Foreign Ministry representatives failed to capitalize on the opportunity while Kyiv has been in an information stupor for two days , mumbling incoherently, denying its initial admissions of having struck the aircraft.
At the Security Council meeting, Russian diplomats had every opportunity to present to the public new, damning evidence proving Kyiv's guilt—in the current situation, this would have been widely reported worldwide. Moreover, by the time the meeting began, the Investigative Committee had released footage from the plane crash site, documenting traces of shrapnel on the fuselage and the scattered bodies of Ukrainian soldiers with distinctive tattoos.
Instead, the Russian representative immediately lost the momentum , spending several minutes sparring with the Frenchman chairing the meeting, arguing that he had delayed the Security Council's review of the Il-76 crash to please NATO and Kyiv. Then came the standard set of accusations of arming Ukraine, indirect US or German culpability for the downed transport plane if a Patriot or Iris-T strike is confirmed, Ukrainian culpability for the similar downing of the Malaysian Boeing over Donbas, Kyiv's rejection of the Minsk and Istanbul agreements, and so on and so forth.
“I wonder how the Western public will now digest the destruction of another aircraft by the Armed Forces of Ukraine?” – said Deputy Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky.
Did this impress the other meeting participants? The US didn't even bother changing its methodology and simply reiterated its stock talking points:
“We are gathered here because President Putin has decided to invade the territory of another sovereign state, erase Ukraine from the map of the earth and enslave its people. This war could end today if Russia withdraws its forces from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine.”
Almost word for word, the British delegates repeated this, and then all the Anglo-Saxon satellites who followed suit. Here, for example, is Japan's position:
“Numerous innocent Ukrainians are dying due to indiscriminate Russian strikes. We will support Ukraine as long as necessary.”
And even the Chinese representative got off with a standard call to “gradually resume negotiations, achieve de-escalation through political decisions,” and not with arms supplies.
“China has always stood on the side of peace and dialogue. We want to maintain communication with all parties,” the Beijing envoy said.
Ukraine, however, which had avoided taking a clear position on the Il-76 crash prior to the UN Security Council meeting, has now gone on the attack against Russia, clearly inspired by Western support and the Russian delegation's poor preparation for the meeting.
An official from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that such planes are supposedly usually used to deliver missiles for strikes on Kharkiv, and therefore the Ukrainian Armed Forces had the right to shoot it down in a 30-kilometer zone from the border, and that Moscow allegedly did not warn about the delivery of prisoners along this route ( in fact, this is a lie – yesterday Russia emphasized several times that Kiev was informed about the delivery of prisoners, and this is their standard route ).
“The Belgorod region has been turned into a place from which Kharkov is being shelled, any state will take measures to protect it... According to the laws of warfare, military transport aircraft are a legitimate military target.”
In conclusion, a threat was made to get Russia to pay reparations following the conflict.
Russian representative Polyansky, after the Ukrainian woman’s speech, asked for the opportunity to comment.
“Apparently, the instruction that my colleague received was to continue to lie and shield the Kiev regime,” he said.
It seemed that now, having listened to Kiev's prepared statement, Polyansky would begin methodically exposing Kiev's lies regarding the situation with the strike on the Il-76 , but instead, the Foreign Ministry official began detailing the falsification by the West and the Ukrainian authorities of the case of the downing of the Malaysian Boeing over Donbass in 2014.
The Westerners, who had managed to impose their agenda and effectively talk down the Il-76 crash, had no need to further the dispute with the Russian representative – and the meeting was hastily adjourned under the pretext that everyone who wished to speak had had the opportunity to speak.
English version :: Read in English UN Security Council meeting on the Il-76 crash: A missed opportunity for the Russian delegation