<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday confronted Russia directly at the UN Security Council, denouncing the Kremlin's invasion of his country as "criminal" and urging the United Nations to strip Moscow of its veto power.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clad in his trademark military fatigues, Zelensky for the first time since the February 2022 invasion sat in the same room as a Russian official, who responded by scrolling through his smartphone with a look of conspicuous disinterest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Most of the world recognizes the truth about this war," Zelensky said. "It is a criminal and unprovoked aggression by Russia against our nation aimed at seizing Ukraine's territory and resources."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zelensky called on the United Nations to vote to end Russia's veto power on the Security Council, where Moscow joins only Britain, China, France, and the United States in being able to block any resolution.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ukrainian leader said this move could be among wide-ranging reforms at the Security Council that would include giving permanent representation to nations in the developing world, where support for Ukraine's cause has been lukewarm.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the UN into a deadlock," Zelensky said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is impossible to stop the war because all efforts are vetoed by the aggressor or those who condone the aggressor," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zelensky repeated the Ukrainian stance that Moscow's veto power belonged to the former Soviet Union -- one of the victors of World War II after which the United Nations was created -- and not to President Vladimir Putin's Russia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Unfortunately, this seat on the Security Council, which Russia occupies illegally through backstage manipulations following the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been taken by liars whose job it is to whitewash the aggression and the genocide," Zelensky said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Russia scoffs -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Taking away Russia's veto power would be exceedingly difficult, with Zelensky acknowledging that Moscow will not "give up this stolen privilege voluntarily."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is, however, precedent: the General Assembly in 1971 transferred China's veto-wielding seat from Taiwan, then considered the country's representative, to the communist government on the mainland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, showing up at the Security Council after Zelensky left, scoffed at the idea of ending Russia's veto and described it as a way to check Western power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The use of the veto is an absolutely legitimate tool laid out in the (UN) Charter," Lavrov said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lavrov denounced Zelensky, who is seeking to win back all territory occupied by Russia, for not negotiating.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia's top diplomat then turned to the onlooking US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and suggested the United States could "give a command for Zelensky to lift the decree" against negotiations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Blinken, who had met Lavrov before the war to warn against an invasion, has largely avoided him since the war and no talks were planned in New York.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In his own remarks as Lavrov entered the room, Blinken recalled a recent visit to Ukraine where he visited a town where bodies of Ukrainian civilians were stacked among the living in a school basement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Russia is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine on an almost daily basis," Blinken said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the Security Council meeting should show Russia that "almost all states" want the war to end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Changing tone with Lula -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The war has brought mixed feelings in parts of the developing world, where some nations have been aghast by the billions of dollars dedicated by Western nations to arming Ukraine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has outraged Ukraine by saying it shared blame for the war, met for the first time with Zelensky since the war and said he heard out his views.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lula said he told Zelensky it was "important to build an atmosphere for negotiations to end the war."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Negotiating around a table is much cheaper than wire. There are no victims, no deaths and no shooting," Lula told reporters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But speaking before the Security Council, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected calls by other nations for an immediate ceasefire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I acknowledge their good intentions. We all want an end to the killing -- today rather than tomorrow," Scholz said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he rejected imposing a "diktat," saying that peace "means respecting the territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tensions erupted even before Zelensky addressed the Security Council, with the Russian side questioning the decision by current Security Council president Albania, represented by Prime Minister Edi Rama, to allow the Ukrainian to go first.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, repeatedly asking to speak, told Rama that letting Zelensky, a former comedian, appear first risked turning the Security Council into "a one-man stand-up show."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rama responded calmly but with growing annoyance, telling the Russian envoy, "There is a solution here -- you stop the war, and President Zelensky will not take the floor." AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>