MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2023) The Russian Foreign Ministry slams double standards showed by the United Nations in its reaction to strikes on Odesa, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Friday.
Russian military inflicted new retaliation strikes on Thursday night on the areas of production and storage of unmanned boats of Ukraine military in the Odesa region, the Russian Defense Ministry said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres then strongly condemned Russian attacks on Odesa.
"Just today, a statement was issued on behalf of the UN Secretary General regarding the retaliatory strikes on Odesa. Strong condemnation, it harms supposedly food security. But it seems to me that strikes on targets that were actually preparing terrorist attacks. That is not something that should be condemned," Vershinin told a briefing.
The Russian diplomat also said that UN's measures to preserve the Black Sea Grain Initiative failed.
"It turns out that one thing is declared and it is not done, and what the UN is trying to do and has been trying to do, to provide some kind of exemption for Russian agricultural exports and fertilizers, simply did not work. It did not work because the mechanism did not work. The statements were somewhere in one place, but the real life was different. This, of course, raises big questions. In this case, it seems to me that our reaction to this is absolutely legitimate and fair. Because the issue of double standards in general, maybe it is a common expression, but unfortunately life forces us to pay attention to it all the time," Vershinin said.
