Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, used his speech at the UN General Assembly on Saturday to attack the United States and its Western allies and divert attention from recent developments in the war in Ukraine. He laid out Russia's case for invading Ukraine, flipping the narrative of the war and repeating what the Kremlin said before: that his country was left with no choice but to start a special military operation to protect Russians in the eastern regions, where many of the battles are currently raging, because Ukraine had trampled on the rights of ethnic Russians living there. He also framed the United States and its allies as being the ones ignoring international law in order to realize their own selfish interests. He said today that the future of the world order is going to be decided on whether or not this is going to be the kind of order with one hegemon at the head of it, making everyone else live according to their notorious rules, which will benefit only that hegemon. We're going to have a fair, democratic world. Lavrov's address came near the end of the weeklong General Assembly and while referendums are underway in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The vote in those areas on whether to join Russia is seen by Western officials as a sham that is expected to culminate in Moscow annexation of an area larger than Portugal. While the Kremlin has used referendums and annexation in the past to exercise its will, the boldness of President Vladimir V. Putin's gambit in Ukraine far exceeds anything he has tried before. Huge numbers of people have fled the areas that Russia controls, the process has been rushed and referendums are taking place against a backdrop of oppression - with U.N. experts citing evidence of war crimes in a forceful new statement. Mr. Lavrov framed Russia as being unfairly targeted and repeated Mr. Putin's claim that the West aims to destroy his country. The scope of the violence against Russia in the West is grotesque, he said. They are not shy away from declaring the intent to inflict a military defeat on our country, but they are also intent on destroying and fracturing Russia. The war in Ukraine was looming over the General Assembly this week as divisions between world leaders dominated their discourse. At a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday, the American secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, and Lavrov were in the same room for the first time since the war. Mr. Blinken made some of his sharpest comments since the war began.