UNITED NATIONS

Russia's UN ambassador on Monday rejected links between the Kremlin-led war in Ukraine and the US-led invasion of Iraq. 

"The genesis of these crises is absolutely different," Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on the 20th anniversary of the Iraq war.

''While Iraq was a hoax, the Ukrainian threat and later the proxy war of the West with Russia is a reality,'' he said.

Nebenzia said the invasion of Iraq was a violation of the UN Charter and international law, but the war in Ukraine is ''not exactly the same.''

However, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly said that the Russian aggression in Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter and international law.

Twenty years ago today, the US bypassed the United Nations and carried out its first airstrikes in Iraq over the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction by the Bush administration.

The war in Iraq resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and failed to uncover any secret weapons of mass destruction.

''Iraq turned into a hotbed of regional instability for many years, which subsequently gave rise to ISIS,'' Nebenzia said. ''The US is a godfather of ISIS, which it later had to fight.''

''After 20 years, the lessons from the US aggression in Iraq are still not learned. The US hasn’t officially apologized or acknowledged the devastating consequences of its fabricated aggression,'' he said.

''Many of those who warmongered then continue to warmonger now, advocating for more weapons to be sent to Ukraine to fuel a NATO proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.''