On Ukraine in UNSC, UN Slams Aid Blockage, Cites Six Month Deadline

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 5, updated -- When the UN Security Council met about Ukraine for the first time since March 6, UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman told Council members of a “complete lack of humanitarian access across the line of contact in either direction,” adding that “the Government of Ukraine must remove all bureaucratic impediments to the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”

On his way into the Security Council, Russia's Vitaly Churkin said “the Security Council needs to call for the implementation of the resolution which we adopted in support of the Minsk agreements, and what I’m going to do in my statement is to describe in detail how Kiev has not complied with protocol and the military provisions of the Minsk agreement...

"If they’re serious, the members of the Security Council about the need for a peaceful settlement of the problems in Eastern Ukraine, such a call needs to be made. I have no illusion, of course, we will not be able to come up with a joint statement as a result of this. But what I detect is that there is growing irritation among some circles, even Western countries who have acquired the habit of supporting Kiev whatever they do, there is growing irritation with the lack of compliance Minsk agreements...  If this tendency continues there is some hope that they will exercise positive influence on Kiev.”

Update: New Zealand's Permanent Representative Gerard van Bohemen began by citing the positives in the UN and OSCE briefings, of which there were some.

 Inside the Council, Feltman said that the UN is encouraged by political work in the Normandy format, with a meeting in Paris scheduled for June 10.

  This last seemed strangely upbeat. Feltman said that “the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements, including the reinstatement of full control of the state border by the government of Ukraine, has a deadline. That deadline is less than six months away.”
 
  And what will happen in those six months? We are covering this.

Alexander Hug, the Deputy Chief Monitor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM), told Security Council members that "the violence witnessed in and around the town of Marinka close to the Line of Contact constitutes a new worrying development in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine,” Hug told the Security Council on Friday.

 “The level of violence seen at Marinka in this context does not necessarily represent a further intensification of violence. The SMM has after all witnessed hundreds of shells for in and around Donetsk airport fired by both sides for many days. Marinka instead seems to represent a possible new development, a refocusing of weaponry and personnel. Before, violence was concentrated north and north-west of Donetsk city, with the economically and strategically important town of Avdiivka to the
north the apparent focus. Marinka does not necessarily mean this objective has changed but perhaps the means has,” Hug said.

 Hug also spoke of landmines - but not who planted them, like the UN similarly declined after finding landmines in South Sudan.

  The meeting ended with fewer and shorter right of reply statements than usual. Afterward, Churkin left quickly -- he said he hopes to be in Moscow tomorrow morning -- and US Samantha Power left too. (It's said she'll be in Kiev June 10-12.)

 In the Council, Power cited the separatists Tweets, some of which are sure to have been deleted by now. One wondered if the US will encourage Twitter to reinstate Politwoops, which captured such "deleted" Tweets....

  Back on April 29 when Ukraine's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin held a UN press conference, Inner City Press asked him about the status of the country's talks with its creditors and the International Monetary Fund, and of the investigations into the killings of Oleg Kalashnikov and Oles Buzyna.

  Klimkin said that the financial talks are going well; the killing he said were meant to destaiblize the country and would be investigated. He said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should not go to Moscow on May 9 in commemoration of World War Two.

 Back on September 22, 2014 when Ukraine's  Klimkin held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about battalions in the East like Azov and Aidar, accused by Amnesty International of abuses.

  Klimkin said that all battalions are part of the army or national guard; the government had checked the Amnesty report.

  Inner City Press also asked if Ukraine will be speaking with the International Monetary Fund to modify its program. Klimkin said the program had not taken into account developments in Donetsk and Lugansk and should, now.

  He said that President Petro Poroshenko may not be the one to speak for Ukraine in the UN General Assembly, as he may need to "be on the ground." He said the soccer or football teams in Donetsky and Lugansk should remain in the Ukrainian League. (This question, he initially laughed at).

Photo: #Ukraine FM @PavloKlimkin holds briefing @FUNCA_info has Qs about #IMF and #Aidar battalion pic.twitter.com/dnvdaymnAZ

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) September 22, 2014

  Back on September 12, when Ukraine'sAmbassador Yuriy Sergeyev took questions Inner City Press also asked him about Amnesty International's damning report about the pro-Kyiv Aidar Battalion, and about Point 11 of the Protocol, "Economic Reconstruction of Eastern Ukraine."

  On Aidar, Sergeyev replied that the separatists had been dressing up in the pro-government militia's uniforms. Is that something that Amnesty would have entirely missed? Their report is online here.

  On economic reconstruction, Sergeyev distinguished between regions that were never with the "terrorists," those that had been liberated, and... others, presumably Donetsk and Luhansk.

 On a second around, Inner City Press asked Sergeyev about reports Ukraine is getting sophisticated weapons from a "non-NATO" country. He said there are negotiations that he couldn't get into the details of, since the counter-parties might pull out.

   In past Sergeyev briefings, for example on September 4, the first question has been claimed by UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance. On September 12, there was no UNCA representative present -- an insider briefing elsewhere about which the scribes are not supposed to report. Sergeyev was thanked by the new Free UN Coalition for Access for showing up and answering questions on-the-record, as it should be.

 In that spirit, Inner City Press put online each of the five pages of Sergeyev's opening statement, here, here, here, here and here.

   Back on September 4, Inner City Press asked Sergeyev about challenges from the right to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, for example from Right Sector, AVOZ, and militia commanders like Dmytro Linko and Semen Semenchenko, who has spoken of the need “to establish our own internal command.”

  Sergeyev replied that “naturally, some generals want to be stronger.”

  So are these are generals? Despite talk in Minsk of a ceasefire, Sergeyev insisted that the “law enforcement action” would continue.

  Sergeyev began on September 4 by offering thanks to USg Jeffrey Feltman and to Valerie Amos -- but not John Ging.