Sir Keir Starmer faced down Russia over the war in Ukraine, accusing it of treating its own citizens as ‘meat to be thrown in to the grinder’.
Addressing the United Nations Security Council for the first time today, the Prime Minister asked Vladimir Putin‘s representative how he dare show his face in the building.
He said the illegal invasion had caused ‘colossal human suffering’ with 35,000 casualties, 6million people forced to flee and almost 20,000 Ukrainian children ‘kidnapped’.
Sir Keir was also due to hold talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at the gathering of world leaders in New York as Ukraine’s president prepares to present his ‘victory plan’ to end the war in a crucial White House meeting tomorrow.
The PM told the security council, on which Russia has a permanent seat: ‘Six hundred thousand Russian soldiers have also been killed or wounded in this war. And for what?
Sir Keir Starmer faced down Russia over the war in Ukraine, accusing it of treating its own citizens as ‘meat to be thrown in to the grinder’
With Russia’s deputy UN representative Dmitry Polyanskiy (pictured last month) in the room, the PM urged: ‘Aggression cannot pay. Borders cannot be redrawn by force. Russia started this illegal war. It must end it – and get out of Ukraine’
Sir Keir was also due to hold talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at the gathering of world leaders in New York as Ukraine’s president prepares to present his ‘victory plan’ to end the war in a crucial White House meeting tomorrow
‘The UN Charter – which they sit here to uphold speaks of human dignity. Not treating your own citizens as bits of meat to fling into the grinder.’
He said the war had also triggered a ‘global energy crisis and a global food security crisis’ while Russia was now deepening its military ties with North Korea and Iran.
With Russia’s deputy UN representative Dmitry Polyanskiy in the room, the PM urged: ‘Aggression cannot pay. Borders cannot be redrawn by force. Russia started this illegal war. It must end it – and get out of Ukraine.’
His strongly-worded intervention came after the Foreign Secretary branded Russia a mafia state.
Addressing the UN gathering on Tuesday, David Lammy said in a direct message to President Putin: ‘Your invasion is in your own interests. Yours alone. To expand your mafia state into a mafia empire. An empire built on corruption.
‘Robbing from the Russian people as well as Ukraine. An empire built on crushing dissent. Courageous opponents like Navalny.
‘An empire built on lies. Spreading disinformation at home and abroad to sow disorder.’
He called out the Russian representative for being ‘on his phone as I speak’ and said that as a black man descended from slaves he recognised Imperialism when he sees it: ‘And I will call it out for what it is.’
His strongly-worded intervention came after Foreign Secretary David Lammy branded Russia a mafia state yesterday
In his own address to the meeting today Ukraine’s President accused Russia of preparing to attack nuclear power stations in his country.
‘Recently, I received yet another alarming report from our intelligence,’ Mr Zelensky told the UN Security Council.
‘Now, Putin does seem to be planning attacks on our nuclear power plants and infrastructure, aiming to disconnect the plants from the power grid.
‘Any missile or drone strike or any critical incident in the energy system could lead to a nuclear disaster. A day like that must never come.’
He warned: ‘If, God forbid, Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, radiation will not respect state borders.’
His week-long diplomatic push will end in Washington DC tomorrow as he gives US President Joe Biden his ideas to end the conflict that has dragged on since February 2022.
Mr Zelensky is under mounting pressure to agree a peace deal with Russia and is expected to demand Ukraine be immediately allowed to join Nato as a condition of any truce.
He is also still pushing for his forces to be given permission to fire Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory – but there is little expectation of a breakthrough.
Speaking en route to New York, Sir Keir told reporters: ‘The support for Ukraine is resolute. We supply quite a lot of capability already under the last government; we’ve increased that under this government – that’s not a criticism of the last government – and we will always listen very carefully to what Ukraine says it needs by way of capability.’
But he went on: ‘I don’t think the victory plan will be about a sole issue like long-range missiles, it will be about a strategic, overarching route for Ukraine to find a way through this and succeed against Russian aggression.’