Zelensky by Andrew L. Urban & Chris McLeod

Author:Andrew L. Urban & Chris McLeod
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regnery Publishing
Published: 2022-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

The use of chemical and biological weapons is banned under the 1925 Geneva protocol. (The Protocol was drawn up and signed at a conference held in Geneva under the auspices of the League of Nations from May 4 to June 17, 1925, and it entered into force on February 8, 1928).

As it was, “conventional warfare was inflicting significant casualties and many Ukrainians did not escape the Russian bombardment.”

The United Nations human rights office said that by March 8 it had verified 1,335 civilian casualties, including 474 killed and 861 injured.

It was noted that the civilian toll was incomplete pending corroboration of reports: “This concerns, for example, the towns of Volnovakha, Mariupol, Izium where there are allegations of hundreds of civilian casualties,” the office said.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yevheniia Filipenko, told the Human Rights council: “Not a day has passed without news of dozens of civilian casualties that resulted from indiscriminate bombing and shelling of residential areas of major Ukrainian cities.”

Russia had few direct allies — Belarus was one — but another 35 countries abstained from a United Nations vote condemning the Russian action. Heading those countries were China and India. China’s stance was probably not surprising considering it had vowed to return Taiwan to its communist fold, raising fears of military action to do so. China would no doubt hope to learn lessons from the outcome of Russia’s action.

China, which had refused to condemn Russia’s actions or call them an invasion, repeatedly expressed its opposition to what it described as illegal sanctions on Russia.

It took two weeks for Chinese President Xi Jinping China to use the “war” word. Speaking at a “virtual meeting” with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he called for “maximum restraint” in Ukraine and said China was “pained to see the flames of war reignited in Europe.” It was his strongest statement thus far on the conflict. He said the three countries (China, France and Germany) should jointly support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China “firmly opposed” the sanctions and called them “without any basis” in international law.

“Willfully wielding the stick of sanctions cannot bring peace and security, but will only affect the economy and people’s livelihood, lead to a lose-lose situation and aggravate division and confrontation,” the spokesperson said, adding that China and Russia had good co-operation and would continue to conduct normal trade relations, including on oil and gas in the spirit of “mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.”

The US warned China against providing military or financial help to Moscow.

According to American officials, Russia had asked for military and economic support from Beijing, which in turn had signaled a willingness to provide aid.

Moscow denied the claim, saying it had enough resources to fulfil its aims. China’s foreign ministry labelled the reports on assistance as “disinformation.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome.

“We will not allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses.

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