Distinguished members of the Security Council, 

I would like to thank all of you who have given words of support and expressed your sympathy following yesterday’s barbaric attacks against Ukrainian civilians, including children.  

I would also like to thank Acting Under-Secretary-General Msuya and Mr. Zhovnir for their comprehensive briefings, revealing the dreadful outcomes of the Russian missile strike. 

I am sorry to recognize the representative of the terrorist putin’s regime in the chair’s seat. It has become a tradition for Russia to mark its presidency in the Council with heinous war crimes and genocidal endeavours. 

This time is no exception, and the chair’s seat is already soaked with blood. Yesterday Russia deliberately targeted perhaps the most vulnerable and defenseless group in any society – children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

Even in times of peace, these children face enormous challenges and require specific support and care. It has always been recognized as one of the most touching manifestations of humanity and empathy to donate and help such children, to ensure they get medical treatment and to create joyful moments to alleviate their suffering.

The Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv – the largest medical center treating young patients with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses – has served this goal and helped thousands of children from across Ukraine and abroad. The Director of the Okhmatdyt has just briefed the Council on the unique position of this hospital in the system of medical treatment of children.

Yesterday Russia again showed its repugnant version of empathy towards children by attacking the Okhmatdyt with a Kh-101 cruise missile. 

[SLIDE 1]

The video footage clearly testifies that the Okhmatdyt hospital was a deliberate target. The footage captured the moment the Kh-101 missile dived towards the hospital building. Later the Security Service of Ukraine made public the pictures of the remnants of this missile, found on the spot.

[SLIDES 2,3,4]

As a result, the toxicology ward, where young patients received dialysis, was completely destroyed. Other facilities at the Okhmatdyt, including surgical, medical-diagnostic buildings, trauma, as well as hematology and oncology departments were damaged.

Additionally, the Russian missile damaged the nearby Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, where three heart surgeries were underway. 

We have just heard the professional assessments of the long-term consequences for the treatment of hundreds of seriously ill children. These consequences include both physical harm and the stress endured by the patients, as well as the destruction of medical provision necessary to treat them. Alongside the immediate casualties among the medical personnel and children following the strike, these long-lasting outcomes also constitute a war crime.

Even more abhorrent is the fact that the Okhmatdyt Hospital was just one of many targets in Russia’s heavy missile strike which hit the cities of Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk yesterday.

According to information from the Defence Forces of Ukraine, the Russian Federation launched 38 missiles, including Kinzhal aero ballistic missile, Iskander-M ballistic missiles, Zirkon hypersonic cruise missile, Kh-101, Kh-22 and Kalibr cruise missiles, as well as Kh-59/69 guided aerial missiles.

Almost one hundred civilian sites were savagely attacked: medical and educational facilities, residential buildings, business-centers, industries. In Kryvyi Rih, eleven people were killed following the attack on the administrative building of a local industrial facility. 

In Kyiv, along with the Okhmatdyt Hospital, the list of targets includes a maternity hospital, where 9 people were killed; and a residential building, where the Russians killed 7 residents, including 4 children.

Let us not forget that the pains Russia goes to harm Ukrainian children has been a mainstream aspect of their aggression from the very beginning. The children who Russia cannot abduct and brainwash, Russia kills. 

Let us not forget that Russia is kept on the “list of shame” for the crimes its armed forces have committed against children. Let us not forget that the person sitting today at the head of the table represents a wanted criminal, suspected of crimes against children and subject to arrest under the ICC warrant.

At least forty-seven people were killed and more than 190 were wounded following yesterday’s strike. 

Putin’s envoy employed his usual tactics of denying reality and blaming Ukrainian air defense. I recall clear footage of the Russian missile approaching the hospital, the scale of the destruction and the eyewitness accounts.

Other Russian propagandists, particularly the so-called Z-bloggers, have been more open. Z-bloggers are administrators of Russian propaganda channels on social media with hundreds of thousands of followers. Given the specifics of their audiences, they, unlike their colleagues from the Russian diplomatic corps, openly explain the rationale behind the Kremlin’s bloody actions. 

One of them, Roman Saponkov, openly stated that the strike on the children's hospital in Kyiv would benefit Russia. "Such attacks might even be beneficial because an average Westerner might finally have a thought: Damn, the same could happen to us, and the children's center in Kyiv looks very much like a hospital in Warsaw... Incidents like these might work in our favor." 

They do not even hide that they are deliberately attacking hospitals. That is exactly what Russians regularly did in Syria from 2015. In April 2016, for instance, they attacked the main health care facility for children in the city of Aleppo, killing two dozen civilians. It is also telling that in 2020 Russia withdrew from a voluntary UN arrangement aimed at protecting hospitals and humanitarian aid deliveries in Syria. 

Now they aim to kill Ukrainian children and also to intimidate the countries which demand Russia comply with the UN Charter.

The attack on a children's hospital is also an indication of Russia's current unwillingness to engage in a peace process. 

It is not surprising that Russia persists in rabidly tearing apart the concept of a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace, based on the UN Charter principles. A concept, I underline, that is at the core of both Ukraine’s Peace Formula and the UNGA Resolution ES-11/6 of 23 February 2023. Russia has rejected its responsibility to adhere to the UN Charter and, in fact, demands that the international community acknowledge its right to violate international law.

However, the attack on the children's hospital is also a manifestation of Russia’s deepest contempt for any peace initiatives, regardless of their origin. The Kremlin’s moral and managerial degradation has reached such an extent that it does not hesitate to commit crimes that undermine the vision for peace of those countries on which the Kremlin now entirely depends. 

Russia is like cancer, only worse. It will stop killing and expanding violence only when it is incapable of doing so. It is imperative to shoot down Russian missiles. It is imperative to destroy Russian combat aircraft at their bases. Bold steps must be taken to eliminate any security deficit.

Currently, the UN membership is actively preparing for the Summit of the Future. We are engaged in active negotiations on the final document with the Declaration on Future Generations as its integral part. 

The question is, what kind of future are we talking about if the murderer feels comfortable sitting knee-deep in children’s blood in the chair’s seat here? As I said in this Chamber in 2022 this war criminal will end up in hell bypassing purgatory and his place there is eternal. What matters however is how he will be put in the dock before that. I can’t stomach the thought of how one can shake his hand and accept a lunch with him paid for with blood money. It is sickening to think of how, in about a week, his depraved boss, Lavrov will preside over you in this Chamber and lecture you on multilateralism.

How many more Russian crimes will it take for the issue of the presence of the dictatorial Kremlin regime in the Soviet permanent seat to be addressed? What atrocities must be committed to ensure that the aggressor’s veto is disregarded, and the Security Council is able to respond to Russia's aggression and war crimes?

The international community has the necessary capacities to provide the aggressor with proper answers. Answers in the only language that any aggressor understands – strong, resolute and united actions to defend the Charter, to stop its violations and to ensure accountability for all crimes, including those committed yesterday.