Six Western nations marked the 15th anniversary of Russia’s takeover of 20% of Georgian territory by demanding on Thursday that Moscow return the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
A joint statement by the six members of the UN Security Council – the US, UK, France, Albania, Japan and Malta – said Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 “marked a more aggressive trend” in its policy towards its neighbours, something we are witnessing today in Ukraine.
The statement, following the council’s closed consultations on Georgia, said the six countries “are committed” to reaffirming the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity “within its borders internationally recognised”.
In August 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a failed attempt to regain control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another separatist Georgian province, Abkhazia, and set up military bases there.
The statement, read by Albanian Ambassador Ferit Hoxha before the Security Council surrounded by diplomats from the other five countries, condemned Russia’s “brutal invasion” and continued occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and its “steps towards the annexation of these Georgian regions”.
A Russian barracks is located behind the administrative border with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On Thursday, UN members urged Russia to return the two regions that Moscow took from Georgia in 2008.
Western nations also reiterated their condemnation of Moscow for “continued provocations which go hand in hand with the unprovoked and unjustified aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine”.
They pointed to Russia’s continued military exercises on the territory, sea and airspace of Georgia as well as its erection of barbed wire fences and other barriers, its illegal detentions and abductions of the local population, the discrimination against ethnic Georgians and deliberate damage to Georgian cultural heritage.
The six countries said the Russia-Georgia conflict should be resolved peacefully based on international law, including the UN Charter, which requires that each country’s territorial integrity be recognized, “noting also the context of the Russia’s Continued Aggression Against Ukraine”.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, called the Western statement “hypocrisy” in a tweet, saying Georgia had lost territory because of a “reckless gamble”.
Russia resumed direct flights with Georgia in May, and Polyansky said Moscow’s relations with the country are “gradually improving, allowing for tourism and economic exchanges.”
“But the Russophobic West is not happy and is trying to drive the wedge between us at all costs,” he said. “This statement is a clear illustration of that. »
Polyansky called the situation “particularly sickening and hypocritical” given that Ukraine became “anti-Russian” in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea. He said Ukraine “is being sacrificed right now by the United States and its allies for Western geopolitical interests in a futile NATO proxy war against Russia to the last Ukrainian.”
This article is originally published on news-24.fr