Following a UN Security Council meeting on Russia’s missile strike on a Ukrainian children’s hospital, Moscow hosted a lunch marking its Council presidency. The menu’s centerpiece – Chicken Kyiv – ignited controversy, as reported by Ukrinform.

Ukrinform also published a photo of the menu. 

Chicken Kyiv, a Ukrainian culinary staple, consists of chicken fillet pounded and rolled around cold butter, then breaded and fried or baked.

It also shares its name with the infamous 1991 “Chicken Kiev” speech by the US President George H. W. Bush, which cautioned against “suicidal nationalism” just weeks before Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union.

Ukraine’s UN envoy, Serhiy Kyslytsya, condemned the menu choice. 

“The moral degradation of Russian diplomacy is evident,” he said.

He questioned how diplomats could engage with Russia’s representative over a meal “paid for with blood money.”

Ukraine convened an urgent UN Security Council session on July 9 following a Russian missile attack on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt children’s hospital. The strike killed two adults – a doctor and a visitor – and injured 10 children.

This attack was part of a larger Russian assault on Ukrainian cities on July 8, resulting in 44 deaths, with 33 in Kyiv alone.

Read more:

• West and Ukraine must learn lessons of Bush’s ‘Chicken Kiev’ speech, Podobed says
• Ukraine’s diplomat at UN Security Council: “Russia kills children it cannot abduct and brainwash”
• Zelenskyy announces $ 7.4 million to rebuild hospital
• UN Security Council meets on Russia blowing up a children’s hospital in Kyiv
• ISW: Russia attempts to deflect responsibility for the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital strike