MEETING THE MOMENT: THE U.S. AND THE UN IN 2023

“I want the Ukrainian people to know that the world sees you, hears you, and is in awe of your resilience and resolve. I also know that words of solidarity are not enough. I am here to zero in on needs on the ground and scale up operations. I am here to say to you, Mr. President, and to the people of Ukraine: We will not give up.”

– UN Secretary-General António Guterres, during a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, April 28, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to widespread devastation, killing thousands of Ukrainian civilians, causing the displacement of more than 14 million people, leaving upwards of 18 million in need of humanitarian assistance, and severely damaging the country’s economy. Beyond Ukraine, Russia’s illegal and brutal war has put significant stress on the international security order, revived fears of nuclear conflict, and exacerbated a global food security crisis that has left tens of millions of people hungry. Even before Russian troops and tanks crossed the border on February 24, 2022, the world was facing significant challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change to long-running conflicts and humanitarian crises in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and elsewhere. Russia’s actions created new layers of complexity, danger, and horror for an already stressed international community.

The UN Security Council was established by the UN Charter to exercise “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.” Unfortunately, Russia’s status as one of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council has prevented the Council from fully discharging this role regarding Ukraine. Nevertheless, the UN system as a whole has responded forcefully to the war and its fallout: UN humanitarian agencies are on the front lines delivering lifesaving aid to the Ukrainian people; the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council have acted to isolate Russia diplomatically and begin the process of investigating and ensuring accountability for war crimes; the International Atomic Energy Agency is working to help avert potential disaster at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants; and the UN has helped negotiate and oversee an international agreement that ended a Russian blockade and allowed Ukraine to export agricultural products to global markets. Without these and other activities, the situation for people inside Ukraine and for millions more around the world would undoubtedly be far worse. Below is a more detailed picture of the UN’s multifaceted efforts to address the war in Ukraine and its global impacts.

From the outset of the war, the UN Refugee Agency, UN Children’s Fund, UN Population Fund, World Food Programme, World Health Organization, and other UN humanitarian agencies have been leading international efforts to provide lifesaving aid to Ukrainian civilians. This includes, among many other types of interventions:

In recent months, a sustained campaign of Russian drone and missile attacks has destroyed nearly half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions of Ukrainians lacking steady access to heating, electricity, and water. In response, UN humanitarian agencies and their partners have been providing generators to keep hospitals open and functioning, supporting centers for displaced people to keep warm, helping Ukrainian authorities convert thousands of facilities into temporary heating points, and giving Ukrainian civilians blankets, mattresses, and other critical household items.

While the Security Council has not been an ideal avenue for action over the past year, the U.S. and its allies have repeatedly turned to the General Assembly to demonstrate widespread international opposition to Russia’s actions. For example, on March 2, 2022, the General Assembly met in emergency session and voted 141-5 to adopt a U.S.-supported resolution denouncing Russia and calling on it to “immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw” all of its military forces from Ukraine. In a subsequent vote in April, the General Assembly suspended Russia’s membership on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), marking the first time a permanent member of the Security Council had its membership in a UN body revoked. In October, the Assembly voted 143-5 to condemn Russia’s attempted annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and in November, it adopted a resolution calling on Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine. It also called for the establishment of an international register to document claims and information on damage, loss, and injury resulting from the Russian invasion.

The UNHRC has also been a key forum for international action against Russia. Within days of the start of the war, the Council met in emergency session and overwhelmingly adopted a U.S.-supported resolution establishing an independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate war crimes committed during the conflict and preserve evidence “for future legal proceedings.” After the vote, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva warned that, “Those from Russia directing and committing violations against my people should be paying attention. The evidence is going to be collected; you are going to be identified, and you are going to be held to account.” In September 2022, the COI presented the Council with its most extensive evidence of war crimes to date, detailing indiscriminate attacks on civilians, executions, torture, gender-based violence, and other acts committed by Russian forces in the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Sumy regions. The COI’s work could ultimately aid efforts by the International Criminal Court and other judicial bodies to prosecute those who have perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict.

The UNHRC has also trained its spotlight on human rights violations inside Russia itself, approving a resolution sponsored by the European Union in October 2022 to establish a special rapporteur to investigate arbitrary arrests, crackdowns on civil society and independent media, limitations on freedom of speech and assembly, and other abuses committed by the Russian government against its own citizens. This is the first time since the Council’s creation that it has authorized a special rapporteur to look specifically into the human rights record of a permanent member of the Security Council.

Prior to the war, Ukraine was one of the world’s breadbaskets, producing enough food to feed 400 million people every year. Together, Ukraine and Russia accounted for nearly one-third of the world’s wheat exports, and in 2019, Ukraine provided 16% of the world’s corn and 42% of its sunflower oil.
At the beginning of the invasion, however, when the Russian navy blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, the country’s ability to ship its agricultural products to world markets dropped precipitously. This worsened a global food security crisis already underway due to the pandemic, climate change, and armed conflict in other places, leading to price inflation and shortages that threatened the lives of people in countries that were most dependent on Ukrainian agricultural exports, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

Given the stakes, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkey led negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to come up with a solution. Their efforts bore fruit in July when the parties announced the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that ended the blockade and allowed for the safe passage of commercial ships carrying agricultural exports from Odesa and two other Ukrainian ports. Since the announcement of the deal and the beginning of the first shipments in August, more than 17.8 million tons of grain and other agricultural products have been able to leave Ukraine, helping to drive down global food prices by 15% since their peak in March and injecting much-needed revenue into the Ukrainian economy. Initially set to expire in mid-November, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was renewed for an additional 120 days.

Ukraine is heavily dependent on nuclear energy: prior to the Russian invasion, 16 reactors across four nuclear power plants produced more than half of the country’s electricity. Unfortunately, the war has increased the risks that these facilities will be caught up in the fighting, potentially precipitating a nuclear accident. As such, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is playing a central role in efforts to ensure the safety of these facilities.

In September 2022, the agency dispatched inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is in Russian-occupied territory close to the front lines and has been subjected to repeated episodes of shelling. Two IAEA officials remain at the facility as part of a continuous international presence there, and the IAEA continues to negotiate with both sides for a demilitarized “protection zone” around the plant to prevent future incidents of shelling. In December, the agency announced that it would install permanent teams of safety and security experts at all other nuclear stations across Ukraine, including the defunct Chernobyl plant, in response to Russia’s growing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.