🎙 #Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on biological laboratories in Ukraine.

💬 Vassily #Nebenzia: COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how vulnerable humanity is in the face of biological threats. It has exacted a huge toll on us, and it continues to claim people’s lives.

When the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) entered into force in 1975, there was hope that the world would at least be safe from manmade biological threats, because all states-signatories realized enormous risks of using biological weapons (BW) and abandoned plans to develop it.

Unfortunately, we have grounds to think that those hopes did not come true completely.

❗❗ We called this meeting because during the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, some shocking facts came to light: the Kiev regime is urgently concealing traces of a military biological program that Kiev implemented with support of the US Department of Defense.

All the materials are available 👉 https://bit.ly/3Jg5MYY and are presented at daily briefings.

Russian military learned the details of UP-4 project which was implemented at laboratories in Kiev, Kharkov and Odessa. It studied possibilities of spreading particularly dangerous infections through migratory birds, including highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza (lethal to humans in 50 % of cases) and Newcastle disease. As part of another project, bats were considered as carriers of potential BW agents. Among the priorities identified are the study of bacterial and viral pathogens that can be transmitted from bats to humans: pathogens of plague, leptospirosis, brucellosis, as well as coronaviruses and filoviruses. Project documents clearly indicate that the United States actively financed bioprojects in Ukraine.

As reported by Reuters, WHO recommended that Ukraine should eliminate its stocks of pathogens to avoid possible leaks that might trigger disease spread among the population. It is not known for sure whether Kiev has complied.

Read full: 🔗 https://russiaun.ru/en/news/110322n_u

#Nebenzia: At the end of January – February, almost all the top leadership of Ukraine openly declared their refusal to fulfill Minsk agreements. The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN also confirmed this during a meeting of the Security Council on February 17. After that, there was a sharp escalation of the situation along the entire line of contact. Numerous facts of ceasefire violations were recorded, shells destroyed civilian homes, schools and other civilian infrastructure facilities. Unfortunately, there were casualties.

https://russiaun.ru/ru/news/osce_140322

#Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on #Syria: We note the convening of the seventh round of the Editorial Board of the Constitutional Committee in #Geneva on 21-25 March. It's essential that Syrians have this opportunity for a direct dialogue and discussion of future basics of their state.

#Nebenzia: #Israel's intentions to double the number of Israelis living in the Jordan Valley and in the #Syrian Golan Heights by 2026 can be viewed as de facto annexation of the major part of the occupied Palestinian territory.

https://russiaun.ru/en/news/n2260522

#Nebenzia: Now that almost 2500 members of Azov Nazi battalion surrendered in #Mariupol, having ended meaningless resistance at the #Azovstal steel works, all their crimes are being thoroughly investigated. Residents of the liberated Mariupol play an active role in this process.

#Nebenzia: We trust that #IAEA experts will visit #ZNPP soon, hope that UN Secretary-General will be fully aware of his responsibility and will not interfere with this mission through a #UN Secretariat department that is accountable to him or through other parts of the UN mechanism.

#Nebenzia: We believe it is important to discuss the situation around Syrian refugees in detail. They have long been a heavy burden for the receiving countries, forced, among other things, to tolerate the presence on their territory of former "white helmets", who even in the West were recognized as radicals, and their Western patrons from the USA and Canada, despite earlier assurances, eventually refused to take them to themselves: their involvement is too obvious to the terrorists.

🔗 vk.cc/cg9yMd

#Nebenzia: We continue to do our best to ensure the safe operation of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Our standard technical personnel, with the support of Russian specialists, are ensuring its functioning. So far, the radiation situation at the station remains normal. However, should provocations by the Kiev regime continue, there is no guarantee there wouldn’t be more serious consequences. Responsibility for this lies entirely with Kiev and its Western patrons and all other members of the Security Council, who still have not found the courage to call a spade a spade and call on Kiev to stop its reckless actions against the power plant, which pose a real threat to international peace and security.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Vassily #Nebenzia on the procedure of the #UN Security Council meeting on #Ukraine:

I would also like to emphasize once again that we stand for the sovereign equality of states and are categorically against "double standards" when discrimination is practiced among UN members. In many of the UN member states, the internal political situation is difficult, but no concessions are made to their leadership. Similarly, the lion's share of international humanitarian aid is focused specifically on Ukraine, and Western sponsors seem to have forgotten about helping those in need in other parts of the world, while spending billions of dollars on new arms supplies to Kyiv. Hence the "double standards" of Europe in relation to migrants, when refugees from Ukraine are given the "green light" at all European borders, and refugees from Africa, the Middle East and other regions are fenced off.

We call on all UN member states to take a principled position on this issue.

👉 https://russiaun.ru/ru/news/270922po

🇷🇺UN Envoy #Nebenzia: Back in the day, #Africa used to be robbed by colonial powers. Now major Western corporations have taken their place. Terrorists who alongside with organized crime plunder the national riches of African states, steal natural and other resources.

Vassily #Nebenzia: The initiative of some Western countries to create a mechanism to collect "reparations" from Russia through the #UN General Assembly is legally null and void. From a legal point of view, the provisions of the draft do not stand up to any criticism and are an attempt to legalize the illegalizable, proceeding from the current international law.

https://russian.rt.com/world/news/1073887-nebenzya-rezolyuciya-reparacii/amp

#Nebenzia: Neither the #UNGA nor any “mechanism” can “cancel” the sovereign immunity of state assets. Those states who will support this decision by the GA will become complicit in the illegal expropriation of a third country’s sovereign assets in the interests of the #West.

Vassily #Nebenzia: We note the alarming regularity of outbreaks of violence in the Occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank of the Jordan River, as well as in the Gaza Strip. We are convinced that the situation will remain explosive until the parties reach mutually acceptable agreements on all final status issues based on the universally recognized international legal framework of the Middle Eastern Settlement with a central element - a two–State solution, which we always support.

🔗 https://russiaun.ru/ru/news/191222_n