Estonian president at UN: Security Council is hostage to aggressor state

President Alar Karis stressed that the UN cannot allow aggression to become a way of doing politics and thus allow Russia to take the whole world hostage. Photo: CAITLIN OCHS / REUTERS / SCANPIX

Speaking about the war started by Russia in an open debate on peace and security in Ukraine at the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday, Estonian President Alar Karis stressed that the UN cannot allow aggression to become a way of doing politics and thus allow Russia to take the whole world hostage.

The Estonian head of state said that a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a body responsible for ensuring international peace and security, is waging a full-scale war against his neighbor and is using its veto in the Security Council to avoid accountability.

«Russia is shamelessly undermining the credibility of the Security Council and the authority of the UN,» Karis said.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 27,149 civilian casualties in Ukraine, 9,614 dead, more than 500 of whom are children. These numbers are not empty statistics. These are people's lives, broken destinies and lost dreams, said the Estonian president.

There is no safe place for those who are holding out, as homes, hospitals, food stocks and schools have been destroyed. Tens of thousands of children have lost their families or been forcibly deported to Russia and Belarus, where they suffer abuse in re-education camps, being forcibly deprived of their Ukrainian roots and identity as they are sent to Russian families, he said.

The president said there are victims of Russia's war also far beyond Ukraine. By unilaterally withdrawing from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain agreement and preventing Ukraine's grain exports, Russia is using food shortages to manipulate the world's most vulnerable populations.

«I want to emphasize, we have never imposed sanctions on Russian food exports to third countries. Russia, and Russia alone, is responsible for this war and for the lives of millions of people who are starving, because it is Russia that is destroying Ukrainian grain production, stealing grain from the occupied territories and bombing Ukrainian ports. Russia's actions demonstrate its willingness to manipulate the market in order to push up the price of grain and deepen the dependence of countries on Russia,» the Estonian head of state said at the debate.

Karis said the UN cannot allow aggression to become a way of doing politics.

«The vast majority of UN members have voted to defend Ukraine's just peace and charter. But the Security Council has remained entirely hostage to the aggressor on this war,» he said.

The Estonian head of state described it as regrettable that the Security Council is not able to act decisively and fulfill its task.

«Its structure and working methods need to be adapted while increasing the powers of the General Assembly. There must be no right of veto if its user acts against international law,» he said.

According to Karis, Estonia supports the Franco-Mexican initiative on veto restriction and the Code of Conduct of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency Group not to vote against resolutions aimed at ending mass atrocities, including crimes of aggression.

«As for the future composition of the Security Council, we need a fair distribution between continents and regions, small, medium and large countries, and we also need to take into account countries' observance of the UN Charter, their unequivocal support for international law and the International Criminal Court,» he added.