Last year, on September 28, 2015, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the United Nations building in New York City in a rebuke of the world body’s welcome of President Vladimir Putin for the 70th session of the U.N. General Assembly meeting. It was the first time in 10 years that the Russian president addressed the U. N. General Assembly.
Protesters outside the building, co-organized by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), included a mix of nationalities and human rights advocates who chanted “No more vetoes for Putin,” “Crimea is Ukraine” and “Justice for MH17.” The American European Solidarity Council, founded by leaders of the United Ukrainian American Organizations of New York, helped to coordinate the protest with UCCA.
Joining the protest were members of the International Circassian Council, Solidarni 2010 and others, such as the Belarusian Congress Committee of America, the Lithuanian American Community (New York district), the American Latvian Association and the Crimean Tatar community. Additional representatives were present from the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, Razom for Ukraine, the Estonian Association, Music Lovers United Against Putin’s Aggression, Russians Against the War, and RUSA LGBT (a Russian-speaking American LGBT rights group).
During the annual General Assembly meeting, Ukrainian protesters were escorted from inside the main hall for holding aloft a war-torn Ukrainian flag from the battle of Ilovaisk as a reminder of Mr. Putin’s military aggression against Ukraine.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 28, President Barack Obama referred to “Russia’s annexation of Crimea and further aggression in eastern Ukraine” and emphasized, “we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated.” The president underscored, “we continue to press for this crisis to be resolved in a way that allows a sovereign and democratic Ukraine to determine its future and control its territory.”
In his address at the U.N., President Petro Poroshenko called for reforming the world body “to return its historical mission as a mechanism for global security,” referring to the Russian vote to undermine the creation of an international tribunal to establish those responsible for downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
Mr. Putin, in his address, used the war in Syria as a distraction from Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. He called for “an international coalition against terrorism.” Following his return to Moscow, Mr. Putin gained the support of the Federation Council to use Russian armed forces in Syria. Russia then used its warplanes to target U.S.-backed anti-Assad forces in Syria, instead of Islamic State targets.
Volodymyr Horbach, a political analyst with the Institute of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, commented: “In order to distract attention from its crimes in Ukraine, the Kremlin is committing new crimes in Syria. When it will be necessary to distract from the crimes in Syria, the Kremlin will start a new war, even worse than the prior one. Russia can no longer stop that kind of logic of events.”
Sources: “Hundreds protest Putin’s arrival at United Nations,” by Andrij Dobriansky, “At U.N. Putin shifts world attention from Ukraine with Syrian campaign,” by Zenon Zawada, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 4, 2015.