5:07 p.m. ET, August 23, 2022
Ukraine says UNSC meeting was a waste of time and says Russia filled it with "fictitious soundbites”
From CNN’s Richard Roth and Laura Ly
Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya called Tuesday’s Security Council meeting a waste of time and said that Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia filled it with “fictitious soundbites.”
“I wish we had been gathered here by Russia to hear the only thing that the entire world wants to hear – and that is a statement that Russia demilitarizes Zaporizhzhia NPP [nuclear power plant], withdraws its troops, and hands it over to the government of Ukraine. Instead, we wasted more than one hour to listen to a slew of fictitious soundbites,” Kyslytsya said.
CNN previously reported that, according to one UN diplomat, Russia had called for Tuesday’s meeting.
“Once again, [Russia] has the audacity to convene a UN Security Council meeting to discuss its own provocations, its own terror, at the Z-NPP [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant],” Kyslytsya said, calling Russia a “terrorist state.”
Kyslytsya also refuted Nebenzia’s statements that Ukrainian shelling has deteriorated the security situation at the nuclear site at Zaporizhzhia.
“Russian narratives about Ukrainian shelling of the station do not stand up to scrutiny. Nobody who is at least conscious can imagine that Ukraine would target a nuclear power plant at tremendous risk of nuclear catastrophe on its own territory. Such a catastrophe would lead to numerous deaths and pollution for many years to come,” Kyslytsya said.
During the meeting, Russia’s UN Ambassador blamed the car bomb death of the daughter of a leading Putin-ally on Ukrainian intelligence agencies, during a Tuesday Security Council meeting on the in-peril nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
“An explosion of a car took place. Inside the car was…Darya Dugina. Our competent authorities are investigating this and preliminary conclusions are that this monstrous crime was organized by the Ukrainian special services,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said in translated remarks.
Nebenzia also blamed the West for supporting the pro-Ukrainian groups.
Nebenzia said the life of Dugina was stopped at “its very height.” He also said a Ukrainian female agent connected to Dugina’s death had escaped to Estonia. Ukraine has denied any responsibility for the attack.
He called on the UN Security Council to condemn the attack, though such condemnation is unlikely.
The Russian representative also said access for international inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia power plant, the largest in Europe, will go forward “in the near future.” Russia and Ukraine have requested the IAEA to go to the power plant site, but so far the UN has said that security is not safe. The Russian Ambassador said the security situation at the nuclear site has deteriorated. He blamed Ukrainian shelling. He denied allegations of Russian abuse of Ukrainian staff at the facility.