Statement by the Delegation of Ukraine at the UN Security Council meeting on “Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine Threats to international peace and security
Mr. President,
Distinguished members of the Security Council, Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo, Assistant Secretary-General Msuya,
I also recognize here the representative of the criminal russian regime in the permanent seat of the Soviet Union.
The terrorist nature of this regime was again manifested on 5 October with another mass murder of civilian Ukrainians, this time in the village of Hroza, Kupiansk district, Kharkiv region.
I would like to start by thanking all of you who have expressed your sympathy for the victims of this horrendous Russian attack – one of the deadliest since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
At least 52 local residents, including a 6-year-old child, were killed by the Russian Iskander missile that hit a local café and a store located in the same building. Six others were wounded and four, including two children, were reported missing.
The café was full of people assembling for a funeral reception. They were all civilians and local residents who had come to pay their respects to Andriy Kozyr, a fallen Ukrainian soldier who was killed in action last year and was initially buried in another region as Hroza was under occupation at the time.
Recently his son Denys decided to rebury him in his home village. And last Thursday, Russians killed Denys as well, along with the entire family – his wife, his grandmother and grandfather, and mother-in-law.
Hroza is a small village, located around 30 kilometers west of Kupiansk – a city that was liberated last autumn and that Russia is desperately trying to retake at any cost. The particularly tragic aspect of this horrendous attack is that Russia killed loved ones from nearly every family in Hroza with a single strike.
According to the words of a local woman, “with one missile they buried the whole village. In every house, there will be one coffin, in some even three, five. Just a few people left alive in the village”.
We in Ukraine well remember similar stories of entire settlements being erased from the map, the settlements being destroyed and their residents killed. That happened 80 years ago, during the Nazi invasion of Ukraine.
Now the Russian Federation carefully cosplays its role model – the Third Reich. By killing people, by attempting to annex territories, by fueling imperial sentiments and feelings of their own superiority. And they also try to whitewash their aggression by pretending to defend themselves from imaginary attacks.
That is exactly how putin explains his war of aggression – as a defence – without caring at all how crazy it sounds to audiences beyond Russia. «They started the war, and we used force and continue to use it to stop it”, as he told his puppets from the so-called “russian parliament” in February this year. “Today… a real war has been unleashed against our homeland again.”, he persuaded the audience of the military parade later in May.
And all these narratives mean the Russist regime follows in the footsteps of its Nazi predecessors who were sure that [I quote] “it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
Said by Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring to psychologist Gustave Gilbert during the Nuremberg trials.
Mr.President,
We commend the strong message from the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Denise Brown, who condemned the horrifying Russian strike as “another barbaric consequence of Russia’s invasion” and reminded us that “intentionally directing an attack against civilians or civilian objects is a war crime.”
As the Secretary-General stated in response to the Russian strike, “Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law”.
As we have seen throughout the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia has shown little regard for the norms of international law. Moreover, the civilian population and civilian objects remain deliberate targets for Russian forces.
On the same day that the mass murder in Hroza happened, two civilians were killed in Kherson by Russian shelling. The next day, on October 6th, Russia struck a residential building in Kharkiv, killing a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother.
These attacks occur every day and the only way to stop them is to deprive Russia of the capability to attack. That is the main task that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are fulfilling, in particular by using weapons received from our allies, – to reduce the Russian military potential thereby limiting its capacity to wage aggressive wars.
Russia, in turn, attempts to undermine our human potential, thus targeting the right of Ukraine and Ukrainians to exist. And this country that keeps killing Ukrainians on a daily basis is now running as a candidate to the Human Rights Council, subject to election tomorrow, October 10th.
Eighteen months ago, Russia’s membership rights in this body were suspended due to “gross and systemic violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Russian Federation during its aggression against Ukraine”.
Russia responded to this decision by intensifying its aggression and increasing the number of deliberate attacks against civilians. Missile strikes in Kramatorsk, Kremenchuk, Vinnytsia and Dnipro, each resulting in dozens killed, were among the most visible but far from the only examples in this regard.
As Russia keeps killing civilians every day, any vote in favor of its candidacy will be a bullet in the UN’s body, already mutilated by Russia. We believe in the wisdom and moral integrity of the UN community to prevent this from happening.”
Mr.President,
Terror has opened too many fronts against humanity. And two days after the horror in Hroza, we saw horrific footages from Israel. Thousands of missiles in the sky of Israel. People killed right in the streets. Riddled cars with civilians. Abuse of hostages. We in Ukraine are particularly sensitive to what has happened, because the Russian terror has also brought all of this to the streets of Ukrainian cities and villages.
When such terrorist attacks occur, everyone who values life must stand in solidarity. Our position is absolutely clear: anywhere in the world, anyone who brings terror and death must be held accountable.
Terrorist attack on Israel was thoroughly prepared, and the whole world understands which sponsors of terror could have encouraged and organized this attack.
And they hope to benefit from it in propaganda domain. According to the intelligence, Russia has already transferred to HAMAS some weapons. The aim is plain and simple – to substantiate the fakes the Kremlin has so desperately circulated about military assistance to Ukraine.
As a part of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign these fakes may be used as a basis for so-called “investigations” in Western information space. To make these fakes more convincing, Russia may use Ruslan Syrovyi, Ukrainian Border Guard Service defector who has appeared to be a long-serving Russian agent.
It will not come as a surprise if putin’s envoy is going to use this narrative about sent-to-Ukraine weapons in the Middle East in this Chamber on Friday.
Mr.President,
Israel has every right to protect itself from terror. So does any other state. And it is very important for the whole world to respond to terror in a united and principled fashion.
As the President of Ukraine said following the mass murder in Hroza, “we realize that words or papers can hardly stop such evil. But air defense can. As well as artillery, missiles, armored equipment. And Ukrainian soldiers who repel Russian assaults and advance themselves. And sanctions imposed by the international community against Russia for terror. And the international justice...”
Ukraine and its civilians require viable protection from Russian atrocities and we expect the world to focus on strengthening the above capacities rather than consuming Russian propaganda and watching new Mosfilm shows like that scheduled in this Chamber for October 13th.
Putin has stated, clearly and unequivocally, that he would like to kill Ukraine. And it was not even a Freudian slip of the tongue. On the contrary, he fully realized what he was saying when he claimed in the so-called Valdai forum on October 6th that [I quote] “if Western defence supplies are terminated tomorrow, Ukraine will have a week left to live.” He said this on the same day that his troops killed 52 people in the village of Hroza.
Restoration of justice and Russia’s accountability will be key elements to comprehensive, just and lasting peace and security that the entire world would benefit.
It is one of ten points of the Peace Formula, the plan that Ukraine has proposed as a universal model to restore the rule-based order and the respect to the norms of international law and principles of the UN Charter. It should become an effective instrument not only to put an end to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine but to settle and prevent any of multiple war-related crises, that affect people and nations across the globe.
I would like to reiterate the message that my President delivered in this Chamber in September, that each country can demonstrate its leadership within the framework of one or more or all points of the Peace Formula. We invite you all to join its implementation.
I thank you.
