Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 6th May. Permanent Representative of India to the UN, T.S. Tirumurti told the members of the UN Security Council that “Ever since the commencement of the conflict in Ukraine, India has been consistently calling for complete cessation of hostilities and for pursuing the path of dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out.”
He asserted that there will be no winning side in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
India has told the UNSC that diplomacy will be a lasting casualty as he underscored the immediate need to evacuate innocent civilians from areas witnessing intense fighting in Ukraine.
Tirumurti said India remains on the side of peace.
“Ever since the commencement of the conflict in Ukraine, India has been consistently calling for complete cessation of hostilities and for pursuing the path of dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out.
Tirumurti said “However, the conflict has resulted in loss of lives and countless miseries for its peoples, particularly for women, children and (the) elderly, with millions becoming homeless and (being) forced to take shelter in neighbouring countries.”
He said “India remains on the side of peace and therefore believes that there will be no winning side in this conflict and while those impacted by this conflict will continue to suffer, diplomacy will be a lasting casualty,.
He emphasized that India has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation. New Delhi also supports all efforts to alleviate the suffering of the people of Ukraine, he said.
India welcomed Guterres’ visit to Russia and Ukraine and his engagement with the leadership of the two countries.
Tirumurti said that “We agree that the immediate priority is of evacuation of innocent civilians from areas witnessing intense fighting. We appreciate the efforts of the United Nations in evacuating the civilian population from Mariupol. We hope these efforts will extend to other areas as well,.
He noted with concern that the conflict is having a destabilizing effect with broader regional and global implications.
“Oil prices are skyrocketing and there is a shortage of food grains and fertilizers. This has had a disproportionate impact on the Global South and developing countries,” he said.
WFP Chief Economist Arif Husain told a news conference Wednesday that the agency is in discussions with India for procurement of wheat as nations face food security challenges amid the Ukraine war.
On WTO restrictions over how much India can export should be suspended amid the current emergency, Husain said one of the recommendations, whether it is World Food Program, IMF, World Bank or even the World Trade Organisation, is about the exemption of World Food Programme from export bans.
He noted that these organisations encouraged governments not to put export bans which artificially increase the price and availability or reduce the availability of major staple commodities.
Tirumurti said the food security challenges emanating from the conflict require the international community to respond by going “beyond constraints that bind us presently.”
He told the Council that India has been sending humanitarian supplies to Ukraine and its neighbours, providing more medical supplies to Ukraine and supports calls for guarantees of safe passage to deliver essential humanitarian and medical supplies, including through the establishment of humanitarian corridors.
Tirumurti said that oil prices are skyrocketing and there is a shortage of food grains and fertilizers. This has had a disproportionate impact on Global South and developing countries of the ongoing disruptions.
He expressed concern over the food and energy security challenges due to the war in Ukraine.
“We acknowledge the efforts made by the Secretary-General, particularly the findings of the Global Crisis Response Group Task Team. We welcome their recommendation for exempting purchases of food by WFP for humanitarian assistance from food export restrictions with immediate effect,” Tirumurti said.
“It is important that similar exemptions are provided to all member states and relevant stakeholders, who are contributing to this global humanitarian effort,” he added.
“We agree that the immediate priority is of evacuation of innocent civilians from areas witnessing intense fighting. We appreciate the efforts of the United Nations in evacuating civilian population from Mariupol. We hope these efforts will extend to other areas as well,” Tirumurti said.
Tirumurti said, “India has been sending humanitarian supplies to Ukraine and its neighbours, which include medicines and other essential relief material. We are also providing more medical supplies to Ukraine.”
He added that India supports calls for guarantees of safe passage to deliver essential humanitarian and medical supplies through humanitarian corridors.
“Humanitarian action must always be guided by the principles of humanitarian assistance, i.e., humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. These measures should never be politicized,” Tirumurti emphasized.
“Let me conclude by reaffirming that the contemporary global order has been built on the UN Charter, international law and respect for sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states,” he said.
UNSC on Thursday convened its meeting in New York o address how to safeguard Ukrainian citizens and civilian infrastructure.
According to an Ukrinform report, this subject was reviewed within the framework of the Republic of Belarus’s recently announced agenda for 2022, “Maintaining Peace and Security in Ukraine.”
Ukraine has been invited to attend the meeting. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, will speak, Ukrinform reported.
According to Ukrinform report, the United States’ Permanent Representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated previously that Russia’s war on Ukraine is one of the Security Council’s top priorities in May.
According to Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s permanent representative to the council In response to the European Union’s “Russophobic policies,” Russia has chosen to skip the UNSC meeting with the EU Political and Security Committee.
Polyanskiy said on his Telegram channel that the “informal” meeting is an effort to “put out the fire of the Ukrainian crisis by adding gasoline,” Tass reported. As per media reports, the action is expected to exacerbate the chasm between Russia, the United Nations, and its allies.
He highlighted he decision to boycott the UNSC meeting, the Russian ambassador claimed, “We made this decision in connection with the clearly hostile and Russophobic policy of the EU, which is actively trying to ‘put out’ the fire of the Ukrainian crisis by adding gasoline to it,” as per media reports. Polyanskiy went on to accuse the EU leadership of gaslighting the Ukraine conflict by sending additional armaments to Kyiv.
It is worth noting that, since the unjustified invasion of Ukraine commenced on February 24, Russia has been slapped with a slew of sanctions and has been kicked out of a number of major international organisations, including the UN agencies. After allegedly committing war crimes in Bucha and bombing civilian buildings and hospitals in multiple Ukrainian cities, Moscow was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on May 9 suggested a fresh set of penalties that will be imposed on Russia, like a total oil embargo on Russian oil imports, and the goal of reducing Europe’s energy dependency on Moscow by the end of 2022.
The officials from the European Commission have submitted a proposal to member countries described the additional sanctions, which are aimed mostly at Moscow’s energy industry and banks, including Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender.
The meeting’s official aim is to provide first-hand information about Russia’s war on Ukraine through a frontline witness. Unofficially, the meeting is most likely an attempt to shape the narrative of the conflict in light of Ukrainian accounts of war crimes during incidents such as the Bucha massacre.
Russia faces increasing isolation within multilateral organisations such as the UN despite its veto power as a permanent member of the UNSC, which enables it to block resolutions. Nevertheless, today’s meeting shows Russia’s continuing interest in shaping international discourse relating to its invasion of Ukraine.
UNSC meeting is unlikely to shift the perceptions of the international community towards Russia.
Russia to continue its attempts to promote a pro-Russian view on the conflict through its narrative that the invasion’s goal is to denazify Ukraine.
However, such attempts are unlikely to have tangible effects considering Russia’s already extensive diplomatic isolation—Western countries have extensive information on the conflict and accounts of atrocities are widespread. Consequently, Russia is likely to incentivise the adoption of its narrative in neutral states in exchange for cheaper energy imports.
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