French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia on Tuesday of “provoking the return of imperialism and colonies” in Europe with the invasion of Ukraine at the end of February.
“What we are witnessing since February 24 is a return to the era of imperialism and colonies. France rejects this idea and will obstinately seek peace,” stressed the French head of state while addressing the UN General Assembly in New York.
“Who is hegemonic today but Russia?” Macron asked.
“Those who are silent today serve, or secretly with some complicity, the cause of a new imperialism, of a contemporary cynicism that is disintegrating our international order without which peace is not possible,” Macron lamented.
Earlier, at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a “winter of discontent on the horizon”, in a world “paralyzed” by divisions despite the growing crises, from the war in Ukraine to the world war. heating
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is at the center of a high-profile diplomatic week at the United Nations General Assembly.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to speak via video thanks to a special authorization voted last week by member states. On Thursday there will be a meeting of the Security Council at the level of foreign ministers.
Macron stressed, however, that he maintains an open channel of dialogue with Putin’s Russia, with whom he plans to speak again in the coming days, especially on nuclear security.
In part of the speech, the French president questioned the role of countries considered non-aligned in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Some make us believe that the West would be on one side and the rest of the world on the other. I am against that division,” said the president, who asked the countries that claim to be neutral to leave that position so as not to be accomplices of the new Russian imperialism.
In the intervention, Macron continued with the harsh criticism against Moscow, underlining the “Russian aggression against Ukraine”, in which Putin tries to involve the entire international community.
“With the war, Russia decided to open the ban on other wars of annexation, today in Europe, but perhaps tomorrow in Asia, Africa and Latin America. What we have seen since February 24 is a return to imperialism and colonialism, rejected by France,” she insisted.
For Macron, peace “is only possible” if Ukraine wants it “sovereignly” and Russia accepts, “in good faith”, that Ukrainian sovereignty be “respected, with a liberated territory and a guarantee of security”.
Speaking to journalists before taking the rostrum, Macron said that the Russian referendums in the occupied regions of Ukraine on the annexation of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the administrations of Kherson and Zaporizhia, will not gain recognition from the community. and that, as such, “it will have no legal consequences”.
“The referendums are one more provocation. […] They are a display of cynicism on the part of Russia. If it wasn’t tragic, we might even laugh,” Macron said.
Previously, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also said that the call for referendums is a “sign of weakness” for Russia.
For Washington, the call for the two separate referendums is a “sign of Russian weakness” in Ukraine and NATO said that they could constitute a “new escalation of the war” to hide the weaknesses of the Russian military forces.
“Russia is holding fake referendums three days early because it keeps losing ground on the battlefield. They are an affront to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. […] We know that they will be manipulated and that Russia will use them as a base to annex these territories, now or in the future,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
For NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the “mock referendums” organized by the authorities installed by Moscow in four regions of Ukraine are “a new escalation of Putin’s war.”
“These fake referendums have no legitimacy and do not change the nature of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg wrote on his personal Twitter account, arguing that “the international community must condemn this blatant violation of international law.”
The pro-Russian separatist territories in the Ukrainian region of Donbass will hold referendums from September 23 to 27 to decide on their annexation by Russia, local authorities announced today.
The high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly began on Tuesday, at the UN headquarters in New York, and will continue until next Monday, with the presence of dozens of heads of state and government, including the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa.
This is the first General Assembly since the start of the war in Ukraine and the first in person since the start of the pandemic.
The event is being held under the theme “A Watershed Moment: Transformative Solutions for Interconnected Challenges”, and will focus on the war in Ukraine and the global food, climate and energy crises.
Source: TSF
