Many delegations, including Western ones, left the hall where the Disarmament Conference is taking place today during the intervention of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a show of solidarity with Ukraine.
The diplomats left the room at the start of a videotaped speech by Lavrov, who originally intended to travel to Geneva for the Disarmament Conference. But on Monday he canceled the trip due to “anti-Russian sanctions”, as he described them, which do not allow him to fly in EU airspace.
Only a few delegations remained in the room, including those from Yemen, Algeria, Venezuela, Syria and Tunisia.
Outside the room, those present applauded the departing delegations.
It is “important that we make a solidarity with our Ukrainian friends,” said Jan Huang, the French ambassador to the Disarmament Conference.
Some members of the delegations also held the Ukrainian flag.
Lavrov said in his speech that Kyiv was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, referring to a real danger that must be averted.
“Ukraine still has Soviet technologies and means to acquire such weapons,” he said. “We can not but respond to this real danger.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba also addressed the Disarmament Conference in a videotaped speech, accusing Russia of war crimes with “indiscriminate bombing” of cities.
“Nothing can justify the rocket bombardment of residential buildings, kindergartens, orphanages, hospitals and aid vehicles, civilian buses, or the millions of refugees fleeing Russian fire,” Kuleba said.
“Russian aggression is a global threat. “Therefore, the response to this threat must be global.”
For his part, the Ukrainian ambassador told the conference that Kyiv had called for an emergency meeting “on the threat to world peace and security posed by Russian aggression against Ukraine, including the issue of weapons of mass destruction.”
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