The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gutteres, criticized the Security Council of his organization for its inability to prevent or stop the war in Ukraine. Speaking in Kyiv on April 28, he said that this was "a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger," reports BBC.
"Let me be very clear: [it] failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war," said the UN Secretary General.
The UN Security Council consists of 15 members and has a mandate of maintaining global peace and security. It faced criticism, including from the Ukrainian government, for its inaction since the beginning of the invasion in February.
Guterres spoke at a joint news conference Thursday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had previously criticized the Security Council.
"I am here to say to you Mr President, and to the people of Ukraine, we will not give up," he said.
Later Gutteres defended his organization, admitting that although the Security Council was "paralyzed," the UN was taking other actions.
"The UN is the 1,400 staff members in Ukraine who are working to provide assistance, food, cash [and] other forms of support," he told the BBC.
Russia is one of the permanent members of the Security Council that has a right to veto any decisions. Because of its position, the Council did not approve a single resolution regarding russian war against Ukraine. The UN General Assembly approved two resolutions: "Aggression against Ukraine" and "The humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine." The UN structures are providing humanitarian assistance to the victims of the russian invasion in the affected areas, internally displaced people and Ukrainian refugees.