Moscow has come under blistering attack at the United Nations over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that the world was at "a dangerous threshold."
As Lavrov, who assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-member Security Council, led a meeting on "effective multilateralism," the UN chief, along with the U.S., U.K., French, and Japanese ambassadors, subjected him to harsh condemnation over his country's aggression against Ukraine, accusing Moscow of atrocities and of "trampling" the UN Charter.
Many Western governments and others assailed Russia's decision to call the Security Council meeting -- dubbed "Effective Multilateralism Through The Defense Of The Principles Of The UN" -- amid the backdrop of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Lavrov told Security Council members that "as during the Cold War, we have reached the dangerous, possibly even more dangerous, threshold. The situation is worsened with the loss of trust in multilateralism."
However, the Western members lambasted Russia's claims of its defense of multilateralism and the UN Charter, pointing directly to Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Prior to Lavrov's remarks, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, sitting next to the Russian foreign minister, told the meeting that Moscow's invasion of Ukraine was "causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people."
"Tensions between major powers are at historic highs. So are the risks of conflict through misadventure or miscalculation," Guterres said.
Guterres also urged the continuation of a UN-brokered grain-export deal with Ukraine that Russia has threatened to scupper because of what it calls Western "obstacles" to the export of Russian food and fertilizers.
He said that "cooperation is essential to creating greater security and prosperity for all."
Later, a UN spokesperson said Guterres handed Lavrov a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing ways to improve the grain deal. Letters were also sent to leaders in Turkey, which helped broker the deal, and in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that a hearing on effective multilateralism was important, "even if it was convened by a council member whose actions display a blatant disregard for the UN Charter."
"Our hypocritical convener today, Russia, invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, and struck at the heart of the UN Charter and all the values we hold dear," she said.
"This illegal, unprovoked, and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most shared principles, that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable," she said, while accusing Russia of atrocities and war crimes.
"As we sit here, Russian forces continue to kill and injure civilians [in Ukraine]," she said.
In direct remarks to Lavrov, the U.S. ambassador urged him to release a U.S. journalist and a former U.S. Marine detained in Russia on what Washington and others call trumped-up charges.
"I am calling on you right now to release Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich immediately, to let Paul and Evan come home," Thomas-Greenfield said.
U.K. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said that "more than a year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Putin has brought unimaginable suffering to that country while trampling on the UN Charter."
"Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed and millions have been displaced," she said, adding that billions of people across the globe had been hit by higher energy prices and food insecurity because of the invasion.
Ishikane Kimihiro, the Japanese envoy, blasted Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and demanded an immediate withdrawal of its forces from the country.
"It is an irony, even a tragedy, that the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, continues its unilateral aggression against Ukraine while hosting an open debate on effective multilateralism through the defense of the principle of the UN Charter."
"The unprovoked, ongoing aggression by Russia is nothing but an outright defiance of the principle of the UN Charter," he said.
"Russia must first and foremost withdraw all of its troops and equipment from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, immediately and unconditionally," a move he said was supported by an "overwhelming" majority of UN members.