STATEMENT
by H.E. Ms. Mariana Betsa, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, at the Security Council meeting on “Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine”
24 February 2026
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Security Council,
I wish to thank the UK Presidency for convening today’s meeting.
I am also grateful to the Secretary-General for his briefing.
At the outset, I would like to express my profound gratitude to all UN Member States that have voted in favor for the GA resolution “Support for lasting peace in Ukraine” just a few hours ago.
The international community has sent a clear call for an immediate ceasefire as a prerequisite for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace. It is high time for the aggressor to comply with this call.
Mr. President,
I would like to start my Statement with a poem of a 10 years old girl Kateryna from Donetsk region dedicated to peace.
All Ukrainian children yearn for peace to come,
To live with joy upon our native ground.
To greet the sun, the sky, the flowers blooming bright,
May war's dark shadow fade from sight!
May silence settle on our Ukraine's hills,
May our land shed the horrors war instills.
Let long-awaited peace flow to our shore
And stand as our protector forevermore.
This is how children in Ukraine see peace – on their native land which will serve as a protector from any repetition of the horrors of war.
Mr. President,
The United Nations, including its Security Council, was established eighty years ago to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.
Eight decades later, this promise has not been fulfilled and we have been facing the largest war in Europe since the World War II. This war is a deliberate plan and choice by the Russian Federation – a country that has misused the Soviet permanent seat in the Council and grossly violated the Charter for decades.
Today, this is not only a war against Ukraine. It is not only a war against Europe. It is a war against the riles-based international order and the very foundations upon which the United Nations was built.
While occupying the Council’s permanent seat and claiming to be one of the guarantors of international peace and security, Russia has become their principal destroyer.
Mr. President,
Over 10 million people across Ukraine continue to depend on humanitarian assistance for their basic survival – access to food, water, shelter, healthcare and electricity.
If not for the Russian Federation’s war, Ukraine would not require humanitarian assistance. On the contrary we would in a position to provide strong support to the countries most in need.
However now millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee from their homes. Millions more remain internally displaced. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded. Thousands of children have suffered death, injury, deportation, or trauma. And as the war progresses and Russia fails to achieve its objectives on the battlefield, it increasingly turns its hatred against civilians.
In 2025 alone, the number of deliberate aerial attacks against Ukraine’s civilian targets rose dramatically. During just one recent month, Russia launched over 6,000 strike drones, approximately 5,500 guided aerial bombs and 158 missiles of various types.
It is terror directed not at armies, but at maternity wards, apartment buildings, power plants and buses carrying workers. It is terror meant to extinguish light, heat and hope. Men do not fight like this. Human beings do not act to one another like this.
Russia’s strategy is clear: unable to defeat Ukrainian forces, it seeks to freeze us in the dead of winter, thus breaking our will and forcing capitulation.
Indeed, the impact on the civilian population is devastating. Power outages have affected over 10 million people, forcing hospitals, schools, and emergency services to operate with limited or no power. Disruptions to heating during sub-zero winter temperatures have left Ukrainians unable to maintain basic living conditions. Water shortages have deprived hundreds of thousands of people of access to safe drinking water. Economic disruption has led to the closure of businesses and essential services, deepening humanitarian suffering across the country.
These acts are not incidental to hostilities; they bear the hallmarks of serious violations of international humanitarian law and amount to war crimes. We continue to document indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the use of weapons in densely populated areas, summary executions, torture and ill-treatment of detainees, conflict-related sexual violence, and the unlawful deportation and forcible transfer of civilians, including children. In this context, arrest warrants on Russian top officials and militaries issued by the International Criminal Court underscore that such conduct may entail individual criminal responsibility under international law. Those responsible must be held accountable.
Moreover, Russia has deliberately targeted grid lines and substations essential for the reliable off-site power supply of nuclear power plants, creating nuclear risks not only for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe. One such attack recently caused the Chornobyl nuclear power plant to lose its external power supply.
Against this backdrop, the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remains gravely alarming. Europe’s largest nuclear facility has endured repeated losses of off-site power. This leaves the plant in a state of constant and dangerous vulnerability, while Russia continues unlawful and irresponsible attempts to connect the plant to its own energy system.
The international community must act decisively and without delay, including through the establishment of temporary international supervision to ensure nuclear and radiation safety, prevent further militarization, and safeguard the plant’s legal status. Such measures must clearly serve one objective: the safe, lawful, and irreversible return of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Ukraine’s legitimate authority, which remains the only sustainable guarantee of nuclear security in Europe.
The occupation and militarization of nuclear facilities cannot be accepted. Ukraine calls on partners to impose comprehensive sanctions on Rosatom and to reduce cooperation with this entity wherever possible.
Distinguished colleagues,
Yet Ukraine stands. Ukrainians overwhelmingly declare their readiness to resist for as long as necessary. Spring is coming and with it comes yet another failed attempt by Russia to subjugate Ukraine.
But resilience alone is not enough. Ukraine urgently needs both humanitarian and defense assistance to protect its people.
We express our deepest gratitude to the governments and citizens of all countries providing assistance. Your support saves lives and sends a clear message to Russia: your terror will not break Ukraine.
We are also deeply grateful to the United Nations agencies operating in Ukraine. Since February 2022, the UN system in Ukraine has been implementing one of its largest humanitarian operations.
In January 2026, the United Nations presented a new Humanitarian Response Plan for Ukraine for the year 2026, aimed at assisting more than 4.1 million Ukrainians. This is precisely how the United Nations proves its relevance, even when this Council is immobilized due to the presence of the aggressor in this Chamber.
Mr. President,
Another important dimension of this war is its profound impact on people.
As of 23 February, 2003 Ukrainian children have been successfully saved from Russian control and brought back home. At the same time, we are aware of more than 20,000 documented cases of possible deportation and forced displacement of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation.
Overall, approximately 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain on the temporarily occupied territory. Russia systematically subjects Ukrainian children to militarization, forcibly alters their identity, changes their citizenship status, and seeks to impose upon them a hateful ideology aimed at erasing their Ukrainian identity. This is a deliberate component of Russia’s genocidal policy against Ukraine and Ukrainians.
I urge UN Member States to contribute to implementing the recently adopted UNGA Resolution on the Return of Ukrainian Children, in particular by consolidating pressure on Russia.
For Ukraine, the return of every child is a moral imperative. It is a matter of justice, of identity, and of the very future of our nation.
This war has brought immense suffering not only to those killed or injured, but also to the loved ones left behind – mothers searching for sons, children waiting for fathers, families living in unbearable uncertainty.
Beyond the visible destruction lies another layer of agony: tens of thousands of missing persons, arbitrarily detained civilians and prisoners of war.
A central obstacle to clarifying their fate is Russia’s systematic practice of incommunicadodetention. UN and ICRC are denied unimpeded access to places of detention. In stark contrast, Ukraine provides full access to facilities holding Russian POWs and civilians in full compliance with international humanitarian law.
More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are currently held in Russian custody. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry has concluded that enforced disappearances form part of a coordinated Russian state policy and amount to crimes against humanity.
Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians equally violates every tenet of international criminal and humanitarian law. Russia systematically denies POW status, subjects them to sham trials based on coerced confessions, and prosecutes them merely for defending their country.
International monitoring missions and investigation teams document arbitrary executions, widespread torture and inhumane detention conditions, including severe beatings, electric shocks and denial of medical care.
A particularly horrifying dimension concerns conflict-related sexual violence against Ukrainian POWs – the crime prompted the Secretary-General to issue a specific notice regarding Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian POWs in his 2025 CRSV Report.
Only the awareness of the inevitability of punishment can compel Russia, other violators, and potential aggressors to comply with international humanitarian law.
Ukraine remains ready to proceed with the exchange of prisoners of war on the principle of “all for all.” We also call for increased international pressure on the Russian Federation to compel it to release all unlawfully detained Ukrainian citizens without delay.
Russia’s refusal to engage constructively on these subjects is a major obstacle to confidence-building and to any credible prospect of a meaningful diplomacy. Without the return of our people and respect for international law there can be no trust and hence no lasting peace.
Mr. President,
Ukraine continues to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified, and illegal full-scale military invasion, in full accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.
Russia can end its war at any time. However, the only way to bring this about is to make Russia bear the full burden of its aggression.
This should include our actions with regard to new alliances forming around Russia - Iran, the DPRK, and Belarus –united by their contempt for the rules-based international order.
The Russian regime and its accomplices will not stop on their own. Russia feels impunity, as it has not yet faced proper consequences for its atrocities.
Despite ongoing peace efforts led by the United States and supported by European partners, the Russian Federation continues to show no genuine readiness to end its war of aggression, using the negotiating process as a cover to continue war against Ukraine.
As of today, we have held three rounds of trilateral meetings with the US and Russian sides. The latest took place in Geneva on 17 - 18 February. As of today, we have no agreement on the most sensitive political matters.
Ukraine has demonstrated a clear and good-faith commitment to peace, including a willingness to consider compromises that are extraordinarily difficult for us — such as agreeing to a cessation of hostilities along the current line of contact. We also insist that the agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine must precede any agreement to end the war.
Yet the Kremlin’s position remains unchanged. It insists that Ukraine withdraw from its own sovereign territory in order to enable Russia’s occupation. This is not a matter of negotiating so-called “red lines.” The sovereignty and territorial integrity of a Member State are fundamental principles of the UN Charter — principles that would constitute a red line for any State represented in this Council.
Mr. President,
If today we allow a self-proclaimed “superpower” to subjugate its neighbor, then tomorrow no state will feel safe.
While the Russia`s war continues, we must mobilize all resources to stop the aggressor and uphold international law.
First, sanctions. Sanctions are not a magic solution, but they are essential and effective. They must be strengthened to impose real economic and strategic costs, including targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet,” limiting oil revenues, and restricting access to critical components for weapons production.
Second, defense support. Ukraine needs additional air defense systems and modern capabilities to protect its people and cities, as well as long-range systems to strike military infrastructure used to attack civilians.
Third, security guarantees. Ukraine must receive credible and legally binding guarantees to prevent any future aggression.
Fourth, justice. Accountability should prevail and it must include ensuring full compensation by the aggressor for the damage, loss, and injury caused to Ukraine and its people, in accordance with international law.
Mr. President,
The question today is whether the United Nations is capable of fulfilling its core function – maintaining international peace and security.
We must reaffirm that international law is not merely declaratory, but a real instrument of peace.
If a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace is not restored for Ukraine – and if the rule of force prevails – then no country will be safe.
If aggression prevails, the global security system will collapse.
Ukrainians are fighting for the right to live freely on our own land, in our own state, in accordance with our choice.
We will never recognize the occupation.
We will never accept territorial concessions.
We will never compromise our freedom.
Our ultimate goal is a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace — based on the UN Charter and international law — where every state can be certain that its sovereignty is respected, its people are safe, and aggression is punished.
Thank you.