‘Morally bankrupt’: Jacinda Ardern says UN has failed in its response to Ukraine war

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made a damning assessment related to the war in Ukraine while in Sydney.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the United Nations has failed in its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ms Ardern made the stark assessment of the UN’s “morally bankrupt position” in a speech on foreign policy at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday as part of her latest visit to Australia.

Shortly after she met with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to continue a round of trade talks with state leaders and business representatives.

Throughout her speech, Ms Ardern emphasised New Zealand’s faith in using multilateral institutions to maintain the global “rules-based order”.

But she said these organisations, including the UN, were imperfect and weren’t immune to “moral failures”.

“When seeking solutions to issues, be it war or dispute, New Zealand will turn to these same institutions to act as mediator and where necessary, as judge,” she said

“When they do fail, our first port of call must always be to find ways to make them stronger.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

Ms Ardern pointed to the UN’s position on Ukraine as an example.

She said the UN had failed to appropriately respond to the Ukraine war because of the position taken by Russia on the Security Council.

Russia, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, in February vetoed a resolution that would have demanded that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops.

More than four months later, the ongoing conflict has killed almost 5000 civilians, according to UN estimates.

Ms Ardern said the UN had taken “a morally bankrupt position” on Ukraine, “in the wake of a morally bankrupt and illegal war”.

“Under these circumstances, waiting for our multilateral institutions to act was not an option for New Zealand,” she said.

“Here, when the system fails, we seek partnerships and approaches based on the second principle of our independent foreign policy, our values.”

Ms Ardern met with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet at Macquarie Street, continuing trade talks with state leaders and business representatives. (Photo by James Gourley/Getty Images)

Ms Ardern said Russia needed to be “held to account” for its military action and called for improvements to be made to the UN.

“We must reform the United Nations so that we don’t have to rely on individual countries imposing their own autonomous sanctions,” she said.

“We must also resource the International Criminal Court to undertake full investigations and prosecution of the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.”

Ms Ardern said New Zealand would intervene as a third party in Ukraine’s case against Russia in the International Court of Justice to ensure this happened.

Ms Ardern said global allies shouldn‘t characterise the Ukraine conflict as a war of “the West versus Russia”, or ”democracy versus autocracy”.

“It is not. Nor should we naturally assume it is a demonstration of the inevitable trajectory in other areas of geostrategic contest,” she said.

Ms Ardern said she remained an optimist at heart despite the “grim” challenges facing the world.