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Statement by the Delegation of Ukraine at the UN Security Council meeting on “Threats to international peace and security”

(14 June 2024)

Mr. President, distinguished members of the Security Council,

I express my appreciation of the briefing by Under-Secretary-General Nakamitsu.

Mindful of the cost of every Security Council meeting I won't comment on Mr. Kovalik's nonsense, It would be a further waste of the taxpayers' money.

I also recognize the continued occupation of the seat of the Soviet Union by the dictator’s envoy.

We reiterate our deep regret that his delegation continues to undermine the Security Council’s mandate by regularly attempting to use this organ as a platform for disseminating Russian propaganda. It is one of many negative impacts of a profound decades long Russian crisis. 

Meanwhile, Russia continues to kill Ukrainians. Just two days ago, nine civilians were killed in the city of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region after a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile hit a multistory residential building. This attack also wounded 29 people, including 5 children.

Earlier the same day, Russia also attempted to kill residents of Kyiv by targeting the Ukrainian capital with 6 missiles, both cruise and ballistic, and 24 Shahed drones. Thanks to the Ukrainian Air Defense forces, all drones and 5 missiles were intercepted. The remaining missile, however, hit a civilian infrastructure facility.

Last night, another barrage of 14 missiles and 17 drones was launched on Ukrainian cities.

Our people experienced similar horrors during the Second World War. The entire territory of Ukraine was occupied by Nazi Germany and my country suffered two waves of disastrous destruction: in 1941, critical infrastructure was blown up by the retreating Soviet troops, and in 1943, the Nazis did the same while retreating from Ukraine.

Millions of Ukrainians perished in that war: either killed by Nazis or dying in concentration camps. Many also lost their lives in Soviet "meat assaults" when Stalin’s generals ordered the taking of cities to coincide with Soviet public holidays. That was the case with the 1943 battle of Kyiv. The order was to liberate the city at all costs by the day of the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.

The Soviet troops lost in the battle of Kyiv over a hundred thousand soldiers, ten times more than the Nazis. A significant number of those fallen were Ukrainians mobilized from the nearby regions and rushed to the battlefield, poorly equipped and untrained.

However, even the “meat grinder” tactic would not have helped Stalin defeat the Nazi evil without the assistance of the states that gathered in Washington on January 1, 1942, to sign the Declaration by United Nations. The U.S. alone provided to the Soviet Union 400 thousand vehicles, 14 thousand airplanes, 13 thousand tanks, 2.7 million tons of petrol products, 4.5 million tons of food and many other items.

At the Tehran Conference in 1943, Stalin admitted that himself. On November 30, Winston Churchill’s birthday, he proposed a toast in his honor, and praised both the Allies: "I want to tell you what, from the Soviet point of view, the President and the United States did to win the war. The most important things in this war are machines ... the United States is a country of machines, without these machines … we would have lost this war.”

Today, on the eve of the Peace Summit, we call on all United Nations, just as it was in January 1942, to unite against the evil that has once again brought war to Europe. Today, Putin’s grin and the gnashing of his worn fangs, which come from the same lair where Stalin was hiding behind the Kremlin walls, cannot frighten the world. Just as then, your support must put an end to the Russian crisis, this war of aggression, this imminent threat to all United Nations. 

We also appreciate that the 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine recently passed Leahy vetting carried out by the US Government. No evidence of violations by the Azov Brigade that may prevent US military assistance from going to this unit has been found.

We welcome this conclusion that debunks the Russian smear campaign that has continued since 2014. Soldiers of the Azov Brigade were among the courageous defenders of Mariupol in 2022 and remained to the very end in the besieged city protecting its residents, whom Russia was killing on an industrial scale.  

Russia’s hatred towards Mariupol’s defenders led to their ill-treatment in Russian captivity and to the Olenivka massacre in July 2022. 

Currently, more than 900 soldiers of the Azov Brigade are held incommunicado in Russian prisons. As reported by the OHCHR, some of them were beaten to death and some others – given long-term or life sentences simply for being members of the Azov Brigade.  We reiterate our call to stop their torture, grant unimpeded and regular access to them by the ICRC and human rights defenders, and include them in prisoner exchanges.

Mr. President,

While spreading the nonsense that the possession of arms by the defending party makes peace elusive, Russia itself continues to receive weapons from rogue states like Iran and North Korea. 

Pyongyang has already reportedly sent to Russia 10 thousand shipping containers that could hold nearly 5 million artillery shells.  

Moreover, Russia resorts to press ganging foreign nationals into its occupation forces in Ukraine by threatening those already in Russia or deceiving those they recruit from abroad.

As reported by international media, Russian authorities have been threatening not to extend visas of African students and workers unless they agree to join the military. Moscow detains foreigners with work visas and forces them to choose between deportation or enlistment into the army.

Russia has also launched a global recruitment drive, luring foreign nationals with promises of lucrative work before forcing them to train and deploy to the frontline. 

Among the most recent cases is the escape of 22 Sri Lankans who managed to desert from the Russian army and return home. 

As the spokesperson of the Sri Lanka Defense Ministry described this appalling situation on 11 June, [I quote] “They were duped”. 

One of those 22 persons, a man named Anil Madusanka, told reporters that he had received a job offer to be a driver in Russia. Upon arrival, however, he was handed an assault rifle and sent to the frontline. After being wounded, he was able to flee to his country’s embassy in Moscow, which arranged for his repatriation.

We urge all Member States to trace the Russian recruiters in your countries and take measures to prevent a devastating impact of the Russian crisis on the safety of your citizens. Let’s be clear, Russia is looking for cannon fodder.

Mr. President,

Tomorrow, the inaugural Peace Summit will start in Switzerland. We are not surprised that Moscow is using every opportunity to discredit this global peace initiative as well as to launch another series of manipulative statements against the backdrop of the worsening Russian crisis.

It is absurd that Putin, who planned, prepared and executed, together with his accomplices, the largest armed aggression in Europe since World War II, has presented himself in his statement of today as a peacemaker. It’s predictable that to end the war he has once again put forward options that undermine the foundations of the international legal order and the UN Charter.

Putin's ultimatums have been voiced by Moscow many times before, and there is nothing new in these latest statements. Yet, the timing of their announcement is telling. 

On the eve of the inaugural Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, Putin pursues only one goal: to prevent leaders and countries from participating in this summit. Russia is afraid of a just and sustainable peace based on the underlying principles of the UN Charter. Once again, we hear from the Kremlin lair the gnashing of the old dictator’s fangs. As we heard from it on February 23 last year when the overwhelming majority of the United Nations voted for these principles. Those who voted against them are against a just peace; some keep promoting freezing of the conflict. 

The powerful voice of the nations united around the principles of the UN Charter at the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland will be decisive for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.  

This voice is critical to make Russia accept these principles, abandon ultimatums, and move to good-faith negotiations to end the war, rather than to continue a propaganda campaign amplified by horrific daily missile strikes on Ukraine. 

Eight decades ago, the Allies that signed the Declaration by United Nations, by providing massive help with weapons, munitions and food to the victims of aggression, stopped the war in Europe. They are able to stop it this time. What is required now, as then, is unity and dedication to the principles of the United Nations. And the Peace Summit in Switzerland is the place to say it loud and clear, ‘We the peoples of the United Nations are determined to stop the war that has brought untold sorrow to millions of women and men …”.

Make sure your voice is heard!

I thank you.