WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to brief the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, a move that angered Russia, to speak about the damage to his country’s civilian infrastructure from Russian missile strikes.
A spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations said the United States, Albania and Ukraine requested the previously unscheduled meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss “Russia’s massive missile strikes today damaging critical civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.”
Russia unleashed a missile barrage across Ukraine earlier in the day, forcing shutdowns of nuclear power plants and killing civilians in Kyiv.
A diplomat from a Security Council member nation, who requested anonymity, said that Zelenskiy would address the council.
Dmitry Polyansky, head of Russia’s permanent U.N. mission, also said Zelenskiy had been announced as a speaker at the meeting via video link, which he said was a violation of the council’s procedural rules.
“Today the Ukrainians, frightened by our attacks on infrastructure, requested an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council,” Polyansky wrote on Telegram.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, David Ljunggren and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
