UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on escalating humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to be held on Thursday to address the escalating humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as the war enters its fourth week and the death toll continues to rise.

The United States, Britain, France, Ireland, Norway and Albania called for the meeting following the increase in shelling in civilian areas.

Taking to Twitter, the UN mission of the United Kingdom, which is one of the six countries that requested the meeting, tweeted, “Russia is committing war crimes and targeting civilians. Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine is a threat to us all.”

The US, United Kingdom and France are permanent members of the security council including Russia and China.

Russia still holds the presidency of the security council which means some solutioned may be stymied.

It is being reported that discussions are also underway to set up an occasion for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak to the UN General Assembly which includes all member states.

At the same time Nato’s general secretary Jens Stoltenberg said Russia could be outnumbered very soon.

“Today we tasked military commanders to develop options across all domains on land, air, sea, and space.”

Stoltenberg explained that plans include more troops and “more pre-positioned equipment and supplies” on land, strengthening “integrated air and missile defense systems” and deploying “sea carrier strike groups, submarines, and significant numbers of combat ships on a permanent basis.”

Earlier, Russia asked to again postpone a UN Security Council vote on a resolution it drafted about the “humanitarian” situation in Ukraine.

The vote, first scheduled for Wednesday and then pushed to Thursday afternoon, is to be set for Friday morning – unless the draft is dropped altogether due to lack of support from Moscow’s allies.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has labelled Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” on Wednesday after watching harrowing TV footage of the invasion of Ukraine, triggering an immediate angry riposte from Russia.

It was the first time Biden has used the phrase to describe Putin, and the US president then deepened his attack, tweeting that Putin was “inflicting appalling devastation and horror on Ukraine — bombing apartment buildings and maternity wards.”

Referring to reports that Russian troops took hostage doctors and patients in a Mariupol hospital, Biden said that “these are atrocities. It is an outrage to the world.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden was “speaking from his heart” after seeing images on television of “barbaric actions by a brutal dictator.”

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