A little out of place? A little off the key? The same could be said on Tuesday when Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council, chaired by its five permanent members: the United States, Britain, China, France – and Russia. Yes, the Ukrainian president was trapped in the paradox of demanding that the Security Council insure him. If anyone could do that, it could be Zelensky, an old hand in getting his message across the world via video link, addressing parliament after parliament, and winning comparisons with Winston Churchill as a communicator in time. of war. “I’m exhausted all my superfluities about Zelensky,” wrote David Axelrod, a Democratic general who was the mastermind of Barack Obama’s election victory, on Twitter. “An amazing, courageous leader in the midst of unimaginable horror and evil. His words land with such force! “ Zelensky’s success is offset by the gloomy and glamorous presence of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, largely silent as his military faces rising war crimes charges. The Security Council requested that in addition to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s ongoing inspections in Russia, that it monitor Russia’s compliance with “the steps required by the IAEA Board”. of Ukraine. forces in Bouha “. This was quickly dismissed and, a few speakers later, all eyes on the C-shaped table turned to Zelenskiy on the giant screen. Once again he sat in a brown leather chair at a white-walled desk, holding a Ukrainian flag to his right, wearing a beard and a light-necked dark green shirt. At the Grammys, the former actor and comedian had described the sound of silence in his country and the redemptive quality of music. At the United Nations, he was in the position of full-fledged warlord, sending a message of the slaughter of the innocent. Zelensky gave a live account from eyewitnesses of what he had just seen in Bucha, a city near the capital, Kyiv. “They cut off limbs, cut off their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children,” he said. “Their language came out only because the attacker did not hear what they wanted to hear.” As Nebenzia watched, Zelenskiy highlighted the contradiction at the heart of the Security Council. “This is no different from other terrorists like Daesh [Islamic State]who has occupied some territories, and here a member of the United Nations Security Council is doing so. “ He called for Nuremberg-type trials – but what hope for justice when Russia can veto any Security Council action to oust Putin for war crimes? And what hope is there when Russia, Ukraine and, in this case, the United States, have not signed the International Criminal Court? Zelensky added an uncomfortable truth that the UN did not want to hear: “Where is the security that the Security Council needs to guarantee? It is not there, although there is a security council. So where is the peace? Where are these guarantees that the United Nations must guarantee? “It is clear that the basic institution of the world, which is to ensure the coercion of anyone who attacks peace, simply cannot function effectively.” The conclusion was clear: a broken security council can only lead to a disintegrated world. Zelensky proposed hosting a world conference in Kyiv to discuss fundamental UN reform. “It is now clear that the goals set in San Francisco in 1945 for the creation of an international world security organization have not been achieved,” Zelensky said. “And it is impossible to achieve them without reforms.” As it became known during his virtual world tour, Zelenskiy concluded by asking his audience to watch a video from the front line. This time, however, he was a hiccup technician and did not show up. Some viewers may have turned off and gone through their day. But a few minutes later the problem was solved and Nebenzia and others present were forced to watch it. Immersed in dance music, the film depicts a tragedy very deep in tears, with scene after scene of the dead, including children. It was the little intimacy that stung: fallen keys next to a blackened hand, red nail polish on the thumbs, an abandoned pink shoe of a child. Shortly afterwards, a diplomat compared what was happening to Pablo Picasso’s Guernica painting. Something reminiscent of the story of Nazi-occupied Paris, when a Gestapo officer is said to have asked Picasso about the painting: “Did you do that?” The artist replied: “No, you did.”
