Iryna Pohorila15:22, 25.02.26

He even stated that Russia’s war against Ukraine would last “as long as necessary.”

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Vasyl Nebenzia, stated that he is Ukrainian by origin and that Ukrainians and Russians are “one nation.”

He made this statement during a meeting of the UN Security Council dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Formally, I am Ukrainian. And I have such a strange surname. Slavs know that it is difficult to find it even in Ukraine. It comes from the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks. My father is a sincere Ukrainian and my mother too. From the Cossacks. More sincere than you… For us there is no difference, we are all one nation,” Nebenzya said.

In addition, he claimed that Ukrainians and Russians “share a common nationality.”

In his speech, he even accused Ukraine of “betraying Kyivan Rus” and repeated the Kremlin’s narratives about “Nazis,” stating that the war would last “as long as necessary.”

Along the way, the Russian representative accused European countries that are members of the UN of allegedly not being interested in a peaceful settlement.

He expressed the Kremlin’s view that Europe is “obviously not in the mood” to support the current trilateral talks to resolve the “Ukrainian crisis,” and it is also “not interested in the future of the Ukrainian people.”

Ukraine’s representative to the UN, Deputy Minister of Defense Mariana Betsa, did not remain in debt and reacted sharply to Nebenzi’s statements:

“Nebenzya, you are not Ukrainian – don’t pretend to be Ukrainian. Secondly, no nation that unites with Russia will ever become one people with it.”

She added that Ukraine is a democratic, free European state, while Russia is “a state that carries out aggression, terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”

(C)UNIAN 2026