Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Andrii Melnyk, called on nuclear-armed states, including the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and China, not to ignore the joint exercises conducted by Russia and Belarus.
He made the statement on Tuesday, May 19, during a UN Security Council meeting.
Melnyk emphasized that Kremlin claims of strength are accompanied by nuclear blackmail. He referred to the announced testing of the “Sarmat” intercontinental missile, capable of carrying up to 16 nuclear warheads, and said that Russia regularly resorts to nuclear threats in response to battlefield setbacks.
Separately, Ukraine’s envoy criticized the Russian-Belarusian nuclear exercises, calling them an “unprecedented challenge to global security.”
According to Melnyk, the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and the joint exercises violate the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He urged nuclear states, including the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and China, not to ignore Russia’s actions.
“We need a new sanctions regime against Russian nuclear arsenals,” the envoy said.
According to him, the military parade in Moscow on May 9 demonstrated not strength but Russia’s vulnerability. Melnyk described it as a “theatrical victory,” saying that “the world witnessed what became a turning point in Russia’s war.”
“What was meant to be a celebration of Russia’s ‘superpower’ status became the beginning of the end of Moscow’s imperial ambitions and the inevitable collapse of Putin’s rule, which is teetering on the edge of military, economic, and moral bankruptcy,” Melnyk said.
This, he said, was “perhaps the greatest act of self-humiliation in modern Russian history,” adding that the parade, which was meant to demonstrate imperial might, instead looked like “a rehearsal for the obituary of the Russian empire.”
Melnyk stated that Ukraine has forced Russia to adjust the scale of its actions thanks to its ability to strike deep inside Russian territory with drones.
“The illusion of Russian invincibility has finally been shattered,” the diplomat said.
He also noted that despite the lack of military success, Moscow continues to demand Ukraine’s capitulation.
