NEW YORK — President Joe Biden condemned Russia for its “brutal,” “needless” war in Ukraine during his United Nations General Assembly address, imploring allies and partners to rally around the Ukrainian cause as Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens nuclear conflict.
“A permanent member of the U.N. Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map,” Biden told the U.N. Wednesday. “Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations charter.”
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Biden, praising international collaboration on sanctions, tweaked his speech to respond to Putin’s “overt nuclear threat” and new troop mobilization while defining his own foreign policy as one of “relentless diplomacy.”
“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple — and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people,” he said. “Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold.”
BIDEN TO RALLY UN AROUND FOUNDING PRINCIPLES AMID UKRAINE WAR
Defying expectations, Biden directly referred to the United States’s strategic competition with China. He reassured the Chinese Communist Party and the rest of the world that the U.S. does not want another “Cold War.” But he did denounce its human rights violations against Xinjiang’s majority Muslim Uyghur population.
“We seek to uphold peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, remain committed to our ‘One China policy,’ which has helped prevent conflict for four decades,” he said. “We continue to oppose unilateral change in the status quo by either side.”
In Biden’s return to the U.N., its first full in-person leader gathering for three years because of the pandemic, he encouraged “inclusive” institutional reform, including expanding the Security Council with new permanent and rotating membership to provide Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America with a seat at the top table.
Biden’s wide-ranging remarks covered the unlikely prospect of a renewed Iran nuclear deal and the importance of protecting gay rights and his “global game changer” Inflation Reduction Act. The legislative package spends $369 billion on climate change mitigation programs, with climate advocate John Kerry watching on in the assembly hall.
“We all know we’re already living in a climate crisis; no one seems to doubt it after this year,” Biden said. “As we meet, half of Pakistan is underwater.”
Biden additionally announced more than $2.9 billion in new federal government funding to counter food insecurity, supplementing the $6.9 billion pledge he already made this year. Food insecurity, an issue exacerbated by the Ukraine war and Russia’s Black Sea blockade stopping grain from leaving Ukrainian ports, is considered a priority of the U.N. during this year’s high-level week.
Amid domestic political, economic, and social challenges, Biden’s address coincides with a crucial moment in the Ukraine war. During an overnight speech, Putin repeated he was prepared to deploy nuclear weapons after Ukrainian counteroffensives with Western-supplied military equipment loosened his grip on Ukraine’s east and south.
After video emerged last week of Russia offering prisoners freedom in exchange for six months on the Ukraine war’s front line, Putin announced he would be mobilizing some army reservists before holding what the U.S. has condemned as illegitimate “referenda” in what Moscow claims is captured Ukrainian territory. Putin’s draft modifies the dynamics of the conflict, the strongman having previously described it as “a special military operation.” Puppet officials in Kremlin-controlled Ukraine will convene elections this week on whether the regions should join the Russian Federation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to speak at the U.N. on Saturday and will appear at a ministerial-level Security Council meeting on Thursday.
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A typical focal point of protests, the grounds around the U.N.’s sprawling headquarters were relatively quiet Wednesday morning. Demonstrations have been organized against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi‘s General Assembly address, which was before that of Biden.
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