Russia is dedicating time during its rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council this month to spotlight Israel’s military operation in Gaza while Russia is continuing to wage its war in Ukraine and intensifies moves to weaken UN sanctions against North Korea.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, said on July 1, at a press conference on his first day chairing the Council, that his country would prioritize achieving a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. He also criticized Israel for the war’s continuance, noting that provisions of a United States-sponsored resolution that the Council endorsed in June have not been carried out. (Russia abstained from the vote.)
On July 2, Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told the Council that gains had been made in opening more border crossings for aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave but the two main ones are still closed.
“The situation in Palestine will remain in the spotlight,” Nebenzia said. “There are no signs of fighting and bombing abating nor a ceasefire is anywhere near. Not a single element of the most recent resolution adopted by the Council has been implemented, and it is still unclear what the final parameters of the proposal and whether the parties agree to accept it.”
Nebenzia told the media on July 2 that the reason aid flow is stalled in Gaza is “the absence of the ceasefire, the absence of the ceasefire, the absence of the ceasefire.”
The Council adopted a resolution on June 10 to back a comprehensive three-phase ceasefire plan to end the war in Gaza. The plan, announced by President Joe Biden but apparently seeded by Israel, aims for an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages and a Palestinian prisoner swap as well as the reconstruction of Gaza. However, Nebenzia criticized the US on July 1 for not detailing the implementation process, while both Hamas and Israel have reportedly rejected the proposal.
Despite his enthusiasm for finding a solution in Gaza, the war in Ukraine is hard into its third year. Although it is not listed as an agenda item on the Security Council’s calendar in July, Nebenzia indicated that he would address the conflict if a country requested it. The war has caused significant global instability, particularly affecting food security.
The Food Security Information Network highlighted the war as a major factor in the increasing number of people facing food and related crises globally. Ukraine told PassBlue that it had no plans yet to call a meeting in the Council.
“We reserve all our rights as a full member of the UN to request a meeting for emergencies and will use that right when appropriate,” Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s envoy to the UN, told PassBlue.
Peter Ferdinand, an emeritus professor of politics and international studies at the University of Warwick, in Britain, said that Russia’s intrinsic motive is to shield itself from criticism over its own war in Ukraine while diverting attention to the role of the US in Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe.
“Russia wants to present itself as being the victim, rather than the instigator of instability,” Ferdinand said. “Russia wants to achieve greatness again, and one form of that greatness would be the restoration of a Russian Empire. The Russian state won’t talk about that because that’s not a language that other states are going to respond positively.”
In March, Russia vetoed a Council resolution to renew the mandate of the panel of experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea to curtail its activities developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Nebenzia claimed that the sanctions were outdated and “detached from reality,” calling for a time limit on the embargoes and emphasizing the need for political and diplomatic solutions.
Ferdinand suggested that Russia’s relationship with North Korea is part of a broader strategy to disrupt the world order and potentially secure weapons and ammunition for its war in Ukraine. (The US says that the latter is already happening.) Russia plans to hold an open debate in the Council on July 16 to discuss “the maintenance of international peace and security” — UN jargon — by focusing on “multilateral cooperation in the interest of a more just, democratic, and sustainable world order.”
The same topic was featured in its agenda during its last presidency, in April 2023. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will preside at the July 16 session. “The sanctions regime against DPRK is an unprecedented thing in the United Nations,” Nebenzia said on July 1, referring to North Korea. “It’s not time-bound, it doesn’t have any provisions for reviewing and no incentive for DPRK to engage.”
Russia is also planning an informal gathering of Council members, called “sofa talks,” a meeting style Britain originated in 2020. They are to be held offsite on July 18. Other agenda items for the month include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Mideast, Haiti and Cyprus. The head of the peacekeeping mission in the latter country will privately brief the Council regarding its report due this month and possibly the status of talks between officials from the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides of the island.
When asked on July 1 if he was going to the Fourth of July party held by the US mission to the UN in New York City, Nebenzia said he hadn’t received a formal invitation to it.
Ambassador to the UN: Vassily Nebenzia, 62
Since: 2017
Languages: Russian, English and Spanish
Education: B.A. in law, Moscow State Institute of International Relations
His story, briefly: Nebenzia was born on Feb. 18, 1962, in Moscow. He joined the Soviet foreign ministry the year he graduated from Moscow State University, in 1983. He has served in various positions in the ministry, including as the director of the Department for International Organizations. He held the post for eight years before being appointed in 2014 as Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN in Geneva. In July 2017, he was named as the permanent representative at the UN in New York City, succeeding Vitaly Churkin, who died suddenly in February that year at age 64. In this role, Nebenzia represents Russia not only in the Security Council but also in other UN bodies at New York City headquarters. Nebenzia is married and has one child. Nebenzia has access to the Russian-owned mansion, Killenworth, in Glen Cove, N.Y., and reportedly rides his European motorcycle on weekends.
Country Profile
Head of State: Vladimir Putin (President)
Foreign Affairs Minister: Sergey Lavrov
Type of Government: Semipresidential
Year Russia (Soviet Union) Joined the UN: 1945
Years on the Security Council: Russia is a permanent member, along with Britain, China, France and the US
Population: 144.2 million
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
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I wonder why nobody bothers to mention that Russia is holding a seat at the Security Council and at UN in general illegally?
When the Soviet Union disbanded all its republics that were not the founding members of UN (as Ukraine was) applied to join UN following the regular procedure, and Russia did not.
it has to be kicked out of UN. and out of SC.
There is an awful lot about what Russia is doing to distract attention from Ukraine but your piece largely ignores the US role in presenting and allowing a UNSC res on Gaza to pass and then claiming it was non binding and so ok for Israel to ignore. Contrary to your claim, Hamas accepted the deal the US pretended was put up by Israel – it was Israeli govt that insists it must continue bombing and killing while at the same time agreeing there is no military solution. Gaza is also taking attention from further illegal land grabs in the West Bank. If you are going to claim independent and balanced reporting on UN matters you’ll have to do much better