SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. And welcome, President Zelenskyy.
We meet more than two and a half years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shredding the core principles of the United Nations Charter – sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.
Every day since, Russia has waged a war of aggression – the textbook example of a threat to international peace and security that this council was created to prevent and address.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome again to High-Level Week here in New York. I think many of us are starting this day with what is a vitally important meeting, one that is not only timely but, I would even say, urgent. And I first want to thank my friend, my partner, my co-chair, the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani – thank you so much, my friend, for doing this – and to welcome our other friend and colleague, the new foreign minister of Ukraine. Welcome. It’s very good to be with you today as well.
“It is magnificent, but it is not war. It is madness,” French Marshal Pierre Bosquet said of the futility and reckless bravery of the charge of the British Light Brigade against a fortified Russian position during the Crimean War. With little exaggeration, much the same could be said of Kyiv’s invasion of the Russian province of Kursk a month ago.
