At U.N. Security Council — Statement of Ambassador Sergíy Kyslytsya, Permanent Representative of Ukraine, at Security Council meeting on August 24, 2023 - "Maintenance of Peace and Security of Ukraine" (check against delivery)

Madam President, distinguished members of the Security Council, Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo,

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

We thank Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo for her briefing, which highlighted once again the devastating impact of the Russian aggression on global security, the United Nations, and first and foremost, on Ukraine.

We are grateful to our civil society briefers - Ms. Kateryna Rashevska and Mr. Mykola Kuleba – for their insightful briefings on crimes against children.

Madam President,

Today, Ukraine marks the 32nd anniversary since its Independence was restored.

As President Zelenskyy has said today in his address [I quote] “Thirty-two years of uninterrupted independence, which will endure. Which we will not allow to be torn apart. And which Ukrainians will not lose grip on.”

As follows from the Act on the Independence of Ukraine of August 24, 1991, this step was triggered by [I quote] “the mortal danger that hung over Ukraine in connection with the coup d'état in the Soviet Union on August 19, 1991”. The Proclamation of Independence also continued [I quote] “the thousand-year tradition of state-building of Ukraine”.

It has always been a matter of national pride that our Independence was restored peacefully, and Ukraine has eagerly taken the path of democratic development as a peace-loving nation, reliable partner and friendly neighbor.

However, mortal danger is again hanging over my country and it comes from the same place – the Kremlin. It denies us our right to live as a sovereign nation. It denies us the right to live as a nation. Finally, it denies us our right to live.

The only role that Russia assigns to Ukraine – a founding UN member – is the role of a lawless colony where the local population either bows to forceful russification or faces deportation and repressions.

We have opted to fight to defend our Independence, our freedom, and the future we will choose ourselves.
In this fight we oppose a country that occupied the territories of several other neighbors before attacking Ukraine.

Let us not forget that the first case since 1991 of Russia’s occupation took place right here with the occupation of the permanent seat of the USSR. Russia’s occupation of both the Council’s permanent seat and neighboring territories constituted violations of the UN Charter. The reaction of the international community, however, encouraged Russia to continue in this vein and served as a carte blanche for further violating all the basic principles of the UN Charter.

We must put an end to this cycle of impunity.
It is our moral and legal duty to state that the actions of the Moscow regime are not compatible either with the status of a permanent member or with its presence in the UN in general.

Madam President

The first Nuremberg judgment referred to numerous Nazi crimes against children.

In particular, it contains Himmler’s quote about Nazi forced-adoption practices that sound terribly relevant today, [I quote]:
“What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take. If necessary, by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us.”

Since 2014, Russia has purposefully pursued a policy of mass abduction of Ukrainian children and their forceful indoctrination.
We have seen this policy of Russism in Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk since 2014.

We welcome the address by the Secretary-General at the Third Summit of the International Crimea Platform, held yesterday. This event served as powerful proof that de-occupation of Crimea and ensuring accountability for the crimes committed since 2014 remain in the focus of the international community.

Since February 2022, Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that more than 700,000 children were “relocated” from Ukraine to Russia.

Ukraine has strong grounds to believe that several hundred thousand Ukrainian children were forcibly and unlawfully taken by Russia, with many still being held against their will.
To date, Ukrainian authorities have identified 19,546 such children, including 4,390 who are orphans or lack parental care. So far, only 386 have been successfully returned and reunited with their families.

Children are abducted under various pretexts and scenarios which you heard about today from our distinguished briefers. After deportation to Russia or to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, our children are exposed to aggressive brainwashing aimed at changing their consciousness, erasing their Ukrainian identity and preparing obedient soldiers for the Russian army in the future.

A new academic year will begin in Ukraine in a week. The Russian Federation has already printed piles of textbooks, for Ukrainian children, with its distorted "reality" justifying its aggression against Ukraine and other insidious propaganda.

Russian crimes against children, like those of the Nazi during WWII, are one of the most horrible markers of the war. The genocidal nature and brutality of these crimes are horrifying.

Russia's war has affected all of Ukraine's 7.5 million children. Almost two-thirds of them have been internally or externally displaced. According to the UN, due to the full-scale Russian invasion, 75% of schoolchildren suffer from stress, and 26% have post-traumatic stress disorder.

The terrible statistics on child casualties that grow every day, you have already heard from the briefers.

Russia’s aggression is about Ukraine’s future and there is no future without children.

It is Ukraine’s top priority to further strengthen children's protection particularly in the context of Russia's aggression.
It is one of the priorities set by the Peace Formula Plan to ensure the release of all prisoners and deportees, including war prisoners and children deported to Russia.

To this end, we established constructive dialogue and cooperation with the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and the local UN-CAAC team. The Joint Prevention Plan between the Government of Ukraine and the UN Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting to end and prevent grave violations against children in Ukraine was signed last Friday, 19 August.

We also appreciate the UN Secretary-General's unprecedented decision to add the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups to the annex of his annual report on Children and Armed Conflict.

As I have already said in this Chamber, Russia’s identification as one of "listed parties that have put in place measures during the reporting period aimed at improving the protection of children" was made in advance and is yet to be substantiated with concrete actions from Russia. The Kremlin must halt its heinous crimes against children in Ukraine and facilitate the return of all the Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported.
Instead, we keep seeing the opposite: Moscow continues its daily shelling of the territory of Ukraine, resulting in the killing and maiming of children. Among the most recent of Russia’s war crimes is the shelling of the city center of Chernihiv on Saturday, August 19. Russia specifically targeted civilian infrastructure, including a theatre as well as the surrounding residential and administrative buildings. They killed 7 people, including a six-year-old girl, and left more than 180 injured, including 15 children. We also see that both the Russian Federation and Belarus continue to kidnap Ukrainian children.

Therefore, I repeat my call to the relevant UN agencies and officials, in particular UNICEF and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, to engage with the issue of the mass abduction of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation and Belarus and to properly monitor and report on this matter.

Madam President,

We are now approaching the Summit of the Future. There is no future without children.

Where are children's rights in our discussions in preparation for the Summit?

Where is the issue of children in many conflicts?

What kind of future do we hope for if children are being killed and abducted?

In four weeks, we will gather at the SDG’s Summit. How can we ensure sustainable development amid the daily loss of children's lives?

Where are children's rights in our discussions in preparation for the SDG’s Summit?

Today, young Ukrainians born in Independent Ukraine are at the vanguard of our existential fight for the future and sustainable development. They are people who have lived in a free democratic country, who share democratic and humanistic values. They are not ready to give up because they realize quite clearly what they are standing up for.

Unlike Russian soldiers, who come to kill Ukrainians for money and accept the role of “cannon fodder”, and who putin gladly sacrifices in furthering his neo-colonial and imperialist practices.

Every contract signed by a Russian soldier is a contract signed with the devil. If they don’t drop their arms and withdraw, they will, like many have already, descend into hell, while their bodies rot in Ukrainian soil.

Madam President,

I have already quoted from the Nuremberg verdict referring to crimes against children, and I now want to remind you that the first verdict of the ICC was also related to such crimes (case Prosecutor v. Lubanga). It makes us believe that every Russian criminal eventually will be brought to justice.

Let me also remind the representatives of putin’s regime in this Chamber of what happened to the Nazi diplomats after the defeat of the criminal regime of another dictator. And what awaits them.
In addition to volumes of materials from the Nuremberg Tribunal, there is a report about the Third Reich diplomats and their involvement in the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes, released in Germany in 2010. They testify that it was almost impossible for high-ranking servants of the regime to keep themselves separate from the crimes that the Nazi regime committed. Take time and read this report, maybe it will help you terminate your contract with the devil.

All your lies and your complicity in the crime of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity are on record in this Chamber. One day, they will be used for materials of another trial – where some of you will join other representatives of putin’s criminal regime in the dock.

As my President has said earlier today, “we remember what the Ukrainian people went through... And we know what we are capable of. We are capable of winning! And we will win! Ukrainian children in Ukrainian squares and streets will celebrate Ukrainian independence in the same way. Our grandchildren will celebrate. And their grandchildren. Together with the friends of our state. With Ukraine's allies and partners... And there will never be any more pauses in Ukrainian history.”

I thank you.