President Biden denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin over the battle in Ukraine on the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, telling world leaders that the very foundation of the group’s constitution is underneath assault.
“As we meet in the present day, the U.N. constitution’s very foundation of a steady and simply, rule-based order is underneath assault by those that want to tear it down or distort it for their very own political benefit,” Mr. Biden mentioned in his second handle to the meeting as president. “And the United Nations’ constitution was not solely signed by democracies of the world. It was negotiated amongst residents, dozens of countries, with vastly completely different histories and ideologies, united of their dedication to work for peace.”
Addressing the battle in Ukraine, now in its seventh month, the president mentioned Putin “claims he needed to act as a result of Russia was threatened, however nobody threatened Russia, and nobody aside from Russia sought battle.”
“Allow us to converse plainly: A everlasting member of the U.N. Safety Council invaded its neighbor, tried to erase a sovereign state from the map,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenants of the United Nations constitution, no extra necessary than the clear prohibition towards nations taking the territory of their neighbor by power.”
MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Photographs
The president additionally introduced a brand new U.S. funding of $2.9 billion to deal with world meals insecurity stemming from Russia’s aggression, the COVID-19 pandemic and local weather change. The cash comes on high of the $6.9 billion the U.S. has already pledged to deal with meals insecurity to date this yr. Mr. Biden emphasised that, opposite to Russian misinformation, U.S. sanctions explicitly permit Russia to export meals and fertilizer with “no limitation.”
“It’s Russia’s battle that’s worsening meals insecurity. And solely Russia can finish it,” Mr. Biden mentioned.
On Monday, Ukraine accused Putin’s regime but once more of “nuclear terrorism” after a Russian missile struck near a nuclear energy plant within the nation’s south. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to deal with the Common Meeting by video on Wednesday. Putin will not be attending the gathering.
On Wednesday, Putin ordered the partial mobilization of a whole lot of 1000’s of extra Russian troops, and hinted on the doable use of nuclear weapons, a doubtlessly catastrophic escalation.
“To those that permit themselves such statements concerning Russia, I need to remind you that our nation additionally has varied technique of destruction … And when the territorial integrity of our nation is threatened, to guard Russia and our individuals, we will definitely use all of the means at our disposal,” Putin mentioned in an handle to the nation. “It isn’t a bluff.”
On the U.N., Mr. Biden accused Putin of “making irresponsible threats to make use of nuclear weapons” and mentioned “a nuclear battle can’t be received, and must not ever be fought.”
Russia can be shifting forward with plans to annex giant parts of disputed Ukrainian territory by way of using referendums that the U.S. and Ukraine shortly dismissed as illegitimate.
“This world ought to see these outrageous acts for what they’re,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “This battle is about extinguishing Ukraine’s proper to exist as a state, plain and easy, and Ukraine’s proper to exist as a individuals.”
In an interview with CBS Information on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield mentioned the U.S. is “going to proceed to do what we’ve got been doing over the course of the previous six months. We’re going to condemn Russia. We’ll isolate Russia. It is not going to be enterprise as traditional for the Russians right here in New York for the 77th UNGA.”
The president additionally emphasised the USA’ efforts to fight local weather change, whereas lamenting lethal flooding in Pakistan and starvation-inducing drought within the Horn of Africa.
“Households are going through inconceivable selections, selecting which baby to feed, and questioning whether or not they’re survive,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “That is the human value of local weather change. And it is rising, not lessening.”
The U.S. will at all times promote human rights, and can at all times defend the U.N. constitution, Mr. Biden mentioned, urging different nations to do the identical.
“This establishment, guided by the U.N. constitution and the Common Declaration of Human Rights, is at its core, an act of dauntless hope,” he mentioned. “Let me say that once more — it is an act of dauntless hope. Take into consideration the imaginative and prescient of these first delegates who undertook an inconceivable job whereas the world was nonetheless smoldering. Take into consideration how divided the individuals of the world should have felt with the recent grief of hundreds of thousands useless, the genocidal horrors of the Holocaust uncovered. They’d each proper to imagine solely the worst of humanity. As an alternative, they reached for what was greatest in all of us, they usually strove to construct one thing higher.”
The president’s speech got here a day later than initially deliberate, as a result of his touring to the UK for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. On the U.N., Mr. Biden will maintain bilateral conferences with leaders of allied nations, together with his first assembly with the newly put in U.Ok. Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Mr. Biden’s address to the General Assembly last year, his first as president, got here because the U.S. was finishing its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Then, the president mentioned the worldwide group stood at an “inflection level in historical past” amid the compounding crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, local weather change and different challenges.
Pamela Falk contributed reporting.
