Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of Ukraine’s banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s remarks on Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya to be inappropriate, arguing that the right of peoples to self-determination should apply to these regions.
In a joint article published in the International Affairs Journal, the authors argued that Guterres’s legal positions are ‘inadequate and politically biased,’ characterizing his statements as ‘politically motivated, false, and legally untenable.’
“His words were dictated by a desire to side with the collective West, and primarily with the countries of the European Union, in the conflict with Russia,” the authors emphasized, insisting that the international legal principle of equal rights and self-determination can and should be applied to Crimea, Donbass, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
Guterres had previously stated that the UN Secretariat concluded the right of self-determination is inapplicable to Crimea and Donbass, with territorial integrity taking precedence. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Guterres’s words the ultimate disgrace for the UN.
