Russia has launched an invasion of Ukraine, which is being called a “special military operation” by the regime of Russian President Vladim...
Russia has launched an invasion of Ukraine, which is being called a “special military operation” by the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, at a tense emergency United Nations Security Council meeting, the Ukrainian ambassador called the actions what they are: war crimes. Furthermore, he had strong words for the Russian ambassador, saying that “war criminals” pass purgatory and “go straight to hell.”
The emergency meeting comes as President Joe Biden’s administration prepares to put more sanctions on Russia. Of course, stiffer action might have helped back when Russia was amassing troops on Ukraine’s border or trying bypass it with projects like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
The viral moment between Ukrainian ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya and Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya came after Putin effectively declared war on Ukraine Wednesday night, claiming the goal is to “denazify” his neighbor, according to The Associated Press.
“About 48 minutes ago, your president declared war on Ukraine,” Kyslytsya told Nebenzya, according to Business Insider.
He added that Nebenzya should “say on the record that at this very moment your troops do not shell and bomb Ukrainian cities, that your troops do not move in to territory of Ukraine.”
If the Russian couldn’t do that, Kyslytsya said, he should step down from his position.
“You declare war and it is the responsibility of this body to stop the war,” Kyslytsya said, according to The New York Times. “I call on every one of you to do everything possible to stop the war or should I play the video of your president declaring the war?”
“This is not called a war; it is called a special military operation in Donbas,” Nebenzya responded.
In a separate exchange, Kyslytsya had sterner words for Russia.
“There is no purgatory for war criminals,” Kyslytsya said at the end of the meeting. “They go straight to hell, ambassador.”
After those 13 words, there was a chilling pause. The Russian ambassador closed by saying the Putin government was not “being aggressive against the Ukrainian people, but against the junta that is in power in Kyiv.”
This was a fairly flimsy excuse, as Russia had launched what The Associated Press described as a “wide-ranging attack.”
“Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa as world leaders decried the start of an invasion that could cause massive casualties, topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government and threaten the post-Cold War balance on the continent,” the AP reported.
“Putin justified it all in a televised address, asserting that the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. had predicted he would make as a pretext for an invasion,” the wire service noted.
“He accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demands to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and for security guarantees. He also claimed that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine but will move to ‘demilitarize’ it and bring those who committed crimes to justice.”
Should the United States or NATO allies interfere, Putin said they would face “consequences you have never seen.”
The Biden administration is promising more sanctions — although that doesn’t seem to have deterred Putin from entering the Donbas region and likely won’t deter him from overrunning the rest of the country if he has a mind to.
Kyslytsya’s words should serve as a chilling example of what happens when Russia’s revanchist designs are ignored by Western governments.
War criminals should indeed go straight to hell, but they can cause a lot of earthly damage before they reach their final destination.
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