Ukraine wants U.N. to allow Zelenskiy to address world leaders via video

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The 193-member United Nations Normal Meeting is on Friday as a consequence of take into account a proposal for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to deal with the annual gathering of world leaders subsequent week with a pre-recorded video.

Diplomats anticipate Russia to name a vote on the proposed resolution, which has been drafted by Ukraine. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia mentioned on Wednesday that Russia opposed permitting Zelenskiy to talk through video.

“Zelenskiy travels completely nicely across the nation … however he cannot come right here. And if you cannot come, which means you ship your consultant to talk on the Normal Meeting,” Nebenzia informed reporters.

In a be aware to Normal Meeting members, seen by Reuters, Ukraine’s U.N. mission mentioned Zelenskiy “can not take part in-person on the conferences of the Normal Meeting as a consequence of ongoing Russian aggression towards Ukraine.”

He’s presently scheduled to deal with the high-level U.N. gathering on Wednesday Sept. 21.

The draft resolution to be thought-about on Friday states that it could not set “a precedent for future common debates and mandated high-level conferences deliberate for future high-level weeks.”

For the previous two years world leaders have been allowed to submit video statements as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, however this yr they’re anticipated to journey to New York to talk in U.N. Normal Meeting chamber.

Inside every week of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, practically three-quarters of the Normal Meeting voted to reprimand Moscow and demand it withdraw its troops. Three weeks it once more overwhelmingly denounced Russia for making a “dire” humanitarian scenario.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; further reporting by David Ljunggren; modifying by Diane Craft)