Zelensky: Russian missile strike on Kyiv speaks to Moscow’s efforts ‘to humiliate the UN’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Russia for striking Kyiv on the same day that the United Nations secretary-general was visiting, saying Thursday that the attack spoke to Russia’s efforts “to humiliate the U.N. and everything that the Organization represents.”

“Moscow claimed they had allegedly ceased fire in Mariupol. But the bombing of the defenders of the city continues. This is a war crime committed by the Russian military literally in front of the whole world. Russia’s shelling of Mariupol did not stop even when the UN Secretary-General was holding negotiations in Moscow,” Zelensky said during an address. 

“And today, immediately after the end of our talks in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. Five missiles,” he continued. “And this says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions. About the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the UN and everything that the Organization represents. Therefore, it requires a strong response.”

Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said that Russia had targeted Kyiv while U.N. chief António Guterres and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov were visiting with Zelensky.

“Russia stroke Kyiv with cruise missiles right when UN Secretary General @antonioguterres and Bulgarian PM @KirilPetkov visit our capital. By this heinous act of barbarism Russia demonstrates once again its attitude towards Ukraine, Europe and the world,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. 

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, in his own post, pointed out the irony that Russia, which is one of the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members, was attacking Kyiv while Guterres was visiting. 

Reznikov wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal last week arguing that several international security organizations in which Russia is a member were failing because “Russia has done everything that the international security institutions were created to prevent.”

“How can the United Nations Security Council, on which Moscow has a permanent seat, live up to its mission to maintain peace? What kind of security and cooperation is possible on the Continent when one participating state of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe has attacked another and killed thousands of civilians? These organizations have failed,” he said.