STATEMENT

by H.E. Mr. Dr. Andrii Melnyk, LL.M.,

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Ukraine

to the United Nations

at the Security Council meeting on

“Threats to international peace and security”

(22 May 2026)

Mr. President,

Distinguished Members of the Security Council,

Before I proceed with my statement, I want to react to the invitation of Mr. Nebenzia. 

I’m not sure that I will have any appetite to visit Moscow. Even when Russia is defeated, even when and after Putin’s regime has collapsed. Even after Russia has paid war reparations, even when the next government in Russia were to beg on its kneels for an apology, even after all Russian war criminals will be sentenced, there will be no reconciliation between Ukraine and Russia for decades, maybe for centuries.

I will even refuse to visit Moscow as a member of Ukraine’s delegation that will travel to Russia to witness Russia’s signature of its declaration of capitulation.

Mr. President, 

Unlike on other occasions, I will refrain today from thanking the Presidency and I will not extend the customary words of appreciation for the convening of this emergency meeting, as neither the facts nor the circumstances provide any legitimate justification for placing this matter before the Security Council this afternoon.

What we have been witnessing over recent months — both at the previous meetings of this Council and today — is a shameless attempt by the Russian Federation to turn reality upside down and to present itself here as a victim.

This recurring exercise in political theatre, staged by Russia in this Chamber, is not only entirely predictable, but also profoundly disrespectful to the members of the Security Council.

The rationale behind this shameless performance orchestrated once again by the Russian delegation in this distinguished hall is as self-evident as the contempt it demonstrates toward this Council.

The Ukrainian delegation wishes to express its profound concern that the Russian Federation, having appropriated the permanent seat of the former Soviet Union at the Security Council under legally questionable and dubious circumstances, continues to exploit this unmerited privilege with growing cynicism and complete disregard for this Council.

It is truly alarming and disturbing that Russia which hijacked this seat without any proper legal procedure keeps abusing this privilege relentlessly and without the slightest sense of restraint or responsibility in a manner unworthy of a permanent member of the Security Council entrusted with the maintenance of international peace and security.

Sitting on the Council does not give Russia a license to spread lies and disseminate propaganda.

If we would follow this logics, then Ukraine would be going to request emergency meetings of this Council every single day. 

If you, distinguished members of the Council, are ready to meet 5 times a week to address Russian atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, so is our delegation. 

Mr. President,

Just three days ago, we met in this Chamber to address Russia’s unprecedented escalation of its war of aggression against Ukraine, and witnessed horrified reports about growing number of civilian victims in Ukraine and Russia’s barbaric war crimes. 

During this week the brutality of Russian atrocities against the civilian population only increased dramatically. 

478 attack drones and ballistic missiles were launched against Ukraine in the last three days only. As a result of these strikes three civilians were murdered and over 30 people were seriously injured.

On 20 May, Russia struck the city of Konotop in the Sumy region with drones, killing one person and injuring eleven civilians. A multi-storey residential building was hit, with floors from the second to the fourth destroyed. 

On the same day, a missile struck, as we just heard from the report of Ms. Wosornu, a warehouse in Dnipro used by UNHCR, killing at least two people, while destroying 900 pallets of humanitarian aid and shelter materials valued at over one million US dollars.

It was the first attack by Russian armed forces on a UNHCR facility since the start of the full-scale invasion. 

Also on 20 May, Russia shelled a city of Vilniansk in the Zaporizhzhia region, hitting a private house and seriously injuring four civilians, including two children, a two-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl. 

Just yesterday, Russian troops attacked the city of Dnipro again, damaging residential high-rise buildings and injuring nineteen people, including children, a six-year-old boy, a nine-month-old girl, and a thirteen-year-old boy. 

That same day, Russian forces shelled Sumy using long-range artillery, with strikes recorded at five locations in the Kovpakivskyi district; three people were hospitalized, including a thirteen-year-old boy. 

Today, Russia continued its attacks across Ukraine, launching 124 drones overnight. While most were intercepted, several strikes hit multiple locations, causing casualties.

Mr. President,

Let me repeat: all these numerous war crimes were comitted by Russia just within the last three days. 

What is important to know I that all the facts regarding Russian crimes in and against Ukraine are not just well documented by national investigative authorities, but also verified by independent international monitoring mechanisms. 

In particular, since 2014, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has been operating with full capacity to collect objective information and establish facts regarding Russia’s systematic violations of international humanitarian law.

Detailed reports on Russia’s crimes in Ukraine, including deliberate attacks and killings of civilians, are regularly published by this UN mission as well by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and relevant Council of Europe monitoring bodies. 

Ukraine has nothing to conceal and fully cooperates with all of these independent institutions.

Mr. President,

And now let us turn to the absurd accusations of the Russian representative regarding an alleged incident in Starobilsk that we just heard today. 

Russia has consistently denied, and we just heard it, they denied access to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine since 2014 for all international monitoring mechanisms.

These is no independent verification of all these baseless claims, as was once again confirmed by our distinguished briefers. 

So everything we hear today about Starobilsk is a pure propaganda show, nothing else.

Such false accusations belong to a textbook disinformation campaign from Moscow, designed to deflect from their own war crimes and manipulate international public opinion.

These groundless allegations fit a well-documented pattern of Russian disinformation operations aimed at distorting reality, creating confusion, and evading responsibility.

To establish the truth about what is happening in Starobilsk, as well as in other occupied towns and villages of Ukraine – including in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Mykolaiv regions, and Crimea – all these territories must be liberated from Russian occupation, and they will be liberated.

Mr. President,

Ukraine again categorically refutes all false accusations regarding the incident in Starobilsk.

Ukraine is exercising its inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter to protect its people and to liberate its own land from foreign occupation.

Let me remind this Council, the Ukrainian city of Starobilsk was brutally occupied on March 3, 2022, by the Russian armed forces.

Now, according to reports that we have, only 20% of its citizens remained in this occupied city. And the truth is that Russian army has been using civilian facilities like drone operations unit, who have been hunting civilians in Ukraine like a human safari since then, all the time.

And it’s also something that you have to remember speaking about this alleged incident.

I would like to reiterate once again that Ukraine’s Defense Forces operate under strict democratic oversight.

They act in absolute compliance with International Humanitarian Law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution. 

Ukraine only targets legitimate military targets and facilities used for military purposes. Our armed forces take every precaution to minimize collateral damage, unlike Russia’s forces.

The operations on the night of May 22, 2026, exclusively targeted the Russian war machine. The strikes successfully neutralized an oil refinery fueling occupation forces, ammunition depots, air defense assets, and command centers.

Mr. President,

The hypocrisy of Russia knows no limits. The Russian representative routinely uses "mirror propaganda" accusing Ukraine of the exact war crimes that Moscow commits daily. 

Russia troops continue to deliberately target Ukrainian cities as we speak, energy grids, and residential areas, while Ukraine surgically dismantles the military infrastructure enabling those attacks.

Mr. President,

I would pose what is perhaps a rhetorical question to this Chamber: 

for how much longer will the other members of the Security Council — those who rightfully serve here either by virtue of the UN Charter or by the trust vested in them by the General Assembly— continue to tolerate its cynical instrumentalization by Russia, this undisguised mockery at the hands of the Russian self-appointed impostors seated among us?

One may look into history for guidance, and one finds there a rather instructive parallel.

Russia’s claim to the permanent seat of the former Soviet Union bears a resemblance to the phenomenon of the so-called Лжедмитрий - False Dmitry — a pretender who briefly occupied the throne in Moscow under a borrowed legitimacy.

For those less familiar with Russian history, Лжедмитрий or False Dmitry was an imposter who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, the younger son of Иван Грозный, Tsar Ivan the Terrible. 

On that false claim of identity, he managed to seize the throne in Moscow in 1605, only to hold it for less than a year before his deception was exposed and his rule collapsed.

In that sense, one might describe today’s Russian Federation, without excessive embellishment and not without irony, as a kind of UN collective False Dmitry - россия - это ооновский Лжедмитрий - a confidence trickster usurping a permanent seat of this Council not through the established UN Charter procedures, but through manipulation and sleight-of-hand tactics.

We are fully aware that it will not be easy to correct this fateful error of modern history and to deprive the Russian Federation of the permanent seat of the Security Council it hijacked through highly questionable means. 

But this decision is inevitable, it is just a matter of time.

Mr. President,

Russia is losing its aggressive war against Ukraine not just in the battlefield. The Russian troops have reached a breaking point.

What we observe, is a diplomatic defeat of Russia also at the United Nations.

It appears nervous displaying visible signs of desperation. 

The very convening of this meeting is a sign of weakness and an attempt to turn the tide and to squeeze a tear out of this Council.

Allow me, therefore, to conclude with a suggestion for the Russian representative regarding his official report on today’s meeting to Mr. Lavrov, and perhaps, in copy, to Mr. Putin.

As you may anticipate, I will formulate it in a language they are unlikely to misunderstand. 

So, your telegram to Moscow, Mr. Nebenzia, shall be very brief:

“Шеф, всё пропало”. Hey boss, the game is up.

I thank you.