By Anna Chibamu

ZIMBABWE  has urged the United Nations (UN) security council to work without bias to end the Russian-Ukraine crisis.

Zimbabwe’s position was enunciated by senator Tsitsi Muzenda at the on-going 144th International Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Bali, Indonesia this week.

“The United Nations Security Council has a duty to work without bias or undue influence for an end to the current conflict. After cessation of hostilities, the United Nations must facilitate the deployment of a credible monitoring team to secure unhindered access to post-war recovery and humanitarian operations,” said Muzenda.

Muzenda said the UN and its humanitarian partners should constantly review and scale up delivery of life saving support to refugees and internally displaced people in Ukraine.

“Peace is possible where men and women of good will have a meeting of minds in respecting the principle of solidarity and multilateralism which espouses human coexistence on the mother planet,” she said.

“This conflict has and is having consequential negative impact on the global economy. The call to reconciliation and peace through diplomacy is an urgent imperative. It is, therefore, Zimbabwe’s considered view that an earnest and constructive dialogue is the only viable option out of the deepening crisis in Ukraine.”

“Zimbabwe affirms that it is the duty of the international community to ameliorate conflicts. To that end, the international community must tirelessly facilitate honest engagement to find a durable solution to the current Russia – Ukraine conflict,” Muzenda said.

The senator commended the Russian Federation and Ukraine for having initiated dialogue towards finding a lasting solution to the crisis.

“Diplomacy through dialogue can only succeed where there is a mutual realisation that states have a duty to exercise their sovereignty in a spirit of co-existence and without inadvertently unduly raising existential security concerns of other sovereign states.

“Given the obtaining historical and geopolitical paradigms, while it is accepted that in line with the United Nations (UN) Charter every state has the right to associate with any other state on the basis of the sovereign equality of nations, each State also has a sacrosanct responsibility to avoid overt and covert threats towards other States,” Muzenda highlighted.