UN calls on EU to avoid ‘double standards’ on Gaza and Ukraine

United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres urged EU leaders on Thursday not to apply “double standards” in their response to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, in comments echoed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

An EU summit began in Brussels as Ukraine said its air defences had foiled a massive Russian missile attack on its GUR military intelligence agency, and residents of a Russian town bordering Ukraine were urged to evacuate amid cross-border shelling and raids by anti-Kremlin militias.

“The basic principle of international humanitarian law is the protection of civilians. We must stick to principles in Ukraine as in Gaza without double standards,” Mr Guterres said.

UN officials say about a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is on the brink of famine and more than 80 per cent have been displaced by Israel’s military response to an attack last October in which Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted about 250 others.

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“The response to the appalling crisis in Palestine has not been Europe’s finest hour, quite frankly,” Mr Varadkar said.

[ Daniel McLaughlin in Ukraine: 'Our great-grandparents talked about the war. Now it is us.' ]

“I think it has been undermining particularly of our efforts to defend Ukraine because so many countries in the global south – also known as most of the world – interpret Europe’s actions in relation to Ukraine versus Palestine as double standards. I think they have a point.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said: “What is happening today in Gaza is the failure of humanity. It is not a humanitarian crisis…it is bombing. The only way of stopping this … is Israel respecting more the civilians and allowing more support to enter into Gaza.”

European leaders will also use the two-day summit to discuss a plan to buy arms for Ukraine with revenue from about €190 billion in Russian assets that have been frozen in the European banking system since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

“I count on the leaders to tell today to their ministers to approve quickly this proposal that will provide [approximately] €3 billion per year for the Ukrainian defence,” Mr Borrell said.

Moscow claims the move would do severe legal and reputational damage to the EU, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would respond by using “all possible judicial mechanisms” and “methods…that correspond to our own interests”.

Air defence systems around Kyiv shot down 31 cruise and ballistic missiles fired by Russia early on Thursday, and falling debris damaged buildings and destroyed cars and injured 17 people in the capital and surrounding region.

It was the biggest missile attack on Kyiv in six weeks, and unnamed sources in GUR told Ukrainian media that the “vast majority” of the rockets were aimed at its facilities. A ballistic missile strike on the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv later on Thursday killed at least one person and injured six.

GUR drone and sabotage attacks have hit many Russian military and industrial targets in the Black Sea and diverse regions of Russia, and the agency is believed to be closely linked to Russian militants fighting for Ukraine that are now operating in the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

Russian officials urged residents of the frontier district of Graivoron to evacuate for their own safety, and said the Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow was ready to accommodate them.

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