UN General Assembly
2023

The Russians went to the International Court of Justice and said that it was not an invasion, it was self-defence. They said that they were exercising their right under Article 51 of the Charter, and besides that, that it was a genocide caused by the Ukrainians. The only problem with those arguments was that the Court looked at them and said that they were not true. This is an invasion of one country by another. It is the most fundamental breach of the Charter one could imagine. The costs of the war are staggering. First of all. there is the unimaginable cost in lives — thousands upon thousands — with hospitals and schools bombed, people displaced and children abducted and forcibly deported. President Zelenskyy was right when he said that it was a global natural disaster. It has caused volatility in food and energy prices at a time when the global economy was already struggling.