UN maintains condemnation of Russia’s wave of attacks in Ukraine after Lavrov’s criticism

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Jul 18 () –

The United Nations Secretary-General has said it stands by its condemnation of Russia’s wave of attacks on Ukrainian territory following criticism from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who accused the UN of “double standards” for treating victims in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine differently.

“My answer is that we do not have an answer. We stand by the words we used and the positions we took that day,” said the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, at a press conference on Thursday.

This comes after Lavrov questioned Dujarric’s actions in a press conference following a UN Security Council session for directly accusing Russia of bombing the Okhmaddit children’s hospital in kyiv.

The Russian foreign minister said that following several attacks on hospitals in Gaza after the Palestinian militant attacks on October 7, the UN issued a “lengthy commentary” from which, however, “it does not appear who carried out the attack.”

At a press conference on Monday, Dujarric condemned the missile attacks carried out by Moscow “against residential and civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine, including the cities of kyiv, Kryvyi Rog, Dnipro and Pokrovsk.”

“Humanitarian law prohibits directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects and any such attack is unacceptable and must cease immediately,” he said, also mentioning the attacks on the children’s hospital.