Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's answer to a media question about UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' statement on the referendums in the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions
6 October 2022 10:26
2058-06-10-2022
Question: On September 29, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres went on record with a very tough statement describing the referendums in Donbass and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as an "annexation." Has he offered any additional public explanations after that?
Maria Zakharova: First of all, a Secretary-General can have no independent "position," especially on territorial issues. Under the UN Charter, this office implies the performance of functions of the top UN administrative official. This has been clearly indicated in the comments of the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations and by the Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
During his briefing on October 5, Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric, a person who speaks on behalf of Mr Guterres, seemed to be trying to find an excuse. But, in truth, we heard nothing new or reassuring. The Secretariat has once again reaffirmed its biased and unprincipled approach to the Ukrainian issue. We are sure that this situation must be changed. It is not to the advantage of the UN Secretariat or its head.
To believe the UN official, Mr Guterres made his September 29 statements based on the General Assembly's decisions. Obviously, he meant Resolution 68/262, which was put to the vote in March 2014 and the subsequent anti-Russia decisions approved by the 11th special session of the UN General Assembly, which were also supported by far from all member states of the United Nations.
Paradoxically, the Secretariat representatives, while belabouring the General Assembly's non-consensus decisions, forget about the documents that were unanimously approved by the UN Security Council. One such document was Security Council Resolution 2202 approving the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. For seven years, Kiev openly violated its provisions. Specifically, both Petr Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky had no scruples about saying in public that it was null and void. We waited in vain for a denunciatory response from the UN Secretariat, something that prompts the conclusion that the UN Secretariat is highly selective about implementing the member states' decisions.
The Secretariat representatives "forget" an important point, while speaking about the need to preserve Ukraine' territorial integrity and basing themselves on some provisions of the UN Charter and the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. The latter document states clearly that the above principle is only applicable to states "possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour." It is obvious that the Kiev authorities do not answer the description. Moreover, "Every State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples referred to above in the elaboration of the present principle of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence." I think there is no need to remind everyone of the seven-year-long shelling of Donbass.
On the whole, there are no "turning points" in the Secretariat's rhetoric. The only thing they proved able to do was to polish slightly the Russophobic statements by the most rabid supporters of the Kiev regime.
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