Statement by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine, Ambassador Sergíy Kyslytsya at the UN Security Council meeting on “Non-proliferation”
(6 July 2023)

Madam President, distinguished members of the Security Council,

I also recognize the representative of putin’s regime in the permanent seat of the Soviet Union.

I would like to start by thanking Under-Secretary General DiCarlo and Ambassador Skoog for their briefing as well as UN Secretariat for its important role in supporting the implementation of resolution 2231 (2015) and in particular the fifteenth report of the Secretary-General on this subject (S/2023/473) prepared for today’s discussion. I would also like to thank Ambassador Vanessa Frazier for her briefing and her team for their work as Facilitator.

We are extremely alarmed about the latest findings of the Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of the Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), in particular the violation by Iran and Russia of Paragraph 4 of Annex B of the resolution 2231 (2015). These unlawful activities are not limited to the region. Right now, these actions are directly affecting peace and security in Europe.
Since September 2022 the Russian Federation has massively used the Iranian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of the “Shahed-131,” “Shahed-136” and “Mohajer-6” types in its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, in particular as an element of its terror strategy against the civilian population and critical infrastructure.

As of today, more than a thousand launches by the Russian Federation of the Iranian UAVs over the territory of Ukraine have been recorded. All types of Iranian UAVs that struck or were shot down over the territory of Ukraine as well as their debris were thoroughly disassembled and studied. According to the results of these studies, Ukrainian investigators and independent international experts identified evidence confirming the Iranian origin of the UAVs used by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine also intercepted UAVs marked as "Geran-1" and "Geran-2". After detailed technical examination these UAVs appeared to be UAVs "Shahed-131" and "Shahed-136" respectively, capable of delivering payloads to a range greater than 300 km. They were just renamed with the Russian names “Geran-1” and “Geran-2”.

Despite numerous official denials and statements, Iran continues the transfer of the UAVs to the Russian Federation. They are then used by putin's regime not only as a weapon on the battlefield but as a method of warfare against highly populated areas and critical infrastructure of Ukraine. Moreover, the competent authorities of Ukraine possess still more alarming information about the intention of the Russian Federation to continue further attacks on Ukraine with more advanced Iranian ballistic missiles and UAV systems.

The Government of Ukraine assesses that the transfer of UAVs from Iran to the Russian Federation constitutes a flagrant violation of the UNSC resolution 2231 (2015), in particular Paragraph 4 of Annex B of this document. In line with the mandate UNSC resolution 2231 (2015) Ukraine has asked multiple times on a bilateral level as well as in correspondence with the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for UN experts to visit Ukraine to inspect recovered Iranian-origin UAVs in order to facilitate implementation of UNSC resolution 2231 (2015).