Russia’s Lavrov Leads U.N. Peace Meeting, Drawing Accusations of Hypocrisy (www.nytimes.com)

Lavrov offered the Council a long, wideranging speech that touched on the aggressions of the West over the decades, from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the invasion of Iraq.

But Western diplomats said the aggressor today is clearly Russia.

This illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary war runs directly counter to our most sacred principle that a war of aggression and territorial conquest is never, ever acceptable, said the U.S.

For all the theater the United States and European members of the Council pointedly did not send their own foreign ministers the session made clear the dangers facing the world.

Antnio Guterres, the U.N.

secretary general, warned that the multilateral global system was under greater strain than at any time since the creation of the United Nations and cautioned that the tensions between major powers increased the risk of conflict.