UN Security Council Briefing on Maintenance of Peace and Security of Ukraine
Statement delivered by H.E. Rytis Paulauskas, Permanent Representative of Lithuania on behalf of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
18 June 2024, New York
President,
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the three Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia, and my own country, Lithuania. We also align ourselves with the statement of the European Union.
We meet today following the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, which took place in Switzerland and brought together peace-loving UN Member States. We fully support Ukraine’s Peace Formula as the only viable roadmap to achieving comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine, based on international law and principles of the UN Charter.
Any initiatives or plans coming from Kremlin or elsewhere neglecting the core principles of the UN Charter cannot be justified or supported. Such endeavors, if implemented, would inevitably undermine international law and not lead to comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
Our countries remain committed to working towards fulfillment of Ukraine Peace Formula goals, laying the path for a durable and just peace.
UNGA Resolution on “Principles of the UN Charter underlying a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, that was adopted in February 2023 with a majority of 141 votes, sets the only viable way towards just and lasting peace in Ukraine in line with the Charter, including the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of States.
This resolution also calls for an immediate cessation of the attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine and any deliberate attacks on civilian objects, including those that are residential areas, schools and hospitals.
President,
As reaffirmed at the Summit, the Baltic States are dedicated to upholding the efforts by IAEA ensuring full safety and security of nuclear infrastructure in Ukraine. Russia must immediately cease its military actions endangering nuclear safety and withdraw its military personnel and ammunition from the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Ukraine should regain full control of all of its nuclear facilities.
We also support measures in ensuring safe and unimpeded transit of Ukrainian grain and produce to those in need, in contribution to global food security.
We condemn the Russian Federation, which along with conventional means of warfare continues to use special ammunition equipped with hazardous chemical substances (CS) against Ukrainian armed forces. We urge the members of the Security Council to bring this issue into their deliberations to find an effective response from the international community to Russia’s violations of international law and the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Furthermore, we call for Russia to abide by its international obligations and immediately release all illegally detained Ukrainians and return more than 20,000 Ukrainian children deported or illegally transferred to Russia. Particularly alarming is mobilization of boys into Russian army as soon as the age allows, which is in violation of Geneva Convention.
We should not tolerate Russia’s war tactics which include attacking schools and hospitals, killing and maiming of children, as well as deliberately denying them humanitarian aid. For this, and rightly so, the Secretary-General has listed Russia for the 2 year in a row in the annexes of the Secretary General’s annual Children and Armed Conflicts report as a party committing grave violations against children. Russia has not signed the joint action plan with the UN to end and prevent grave violations against children.
There is also a growing body of evidence that Russia systematically subjects Ukrainian POWs and civilian to killings, torture and ill-treatment, including severe beatings, rape, inhuman conditions of detention and denial of medical support.
President,
Russia must also abide to the International Court’s of Justice binding order for provisional measures from March 2022, to immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced on 24 February 2022 in the territory of Ukraine.
Yet Russia continues its unprovoked, unjustified and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, at least 174 civilians were killed and 690 injured in Ukraine in May. This is the highest monthly number of civilian casualties the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) has documented since June 2023. The Mission in May alone registered 19 attacks on energy infrastructure destroying or damaging power plants and temporarily disrupting access to electricity and water supply.
Russia also is stepping up its hybrid activities against neighbors, particularly in the Baltic Sea region, (arson attacks, GPS jamming, attacks against critical infrastructure, interference in the EU elections, physical violence, information manipulation attacks, instrumentalization of migration, etc.). Such Russia’s actions are a deliberate escalatory provocation to intimidate neighbouring countries and their societies.
President,
International monitoring mechanisms, including the UN Commission of Inquiry, have concluded that Russian authorities have committed a wide range of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in Ukraine. The political and military leadership of Russia and its accomplice Belarus must be held accountable for the destruction of civilian, including energy infrastructure of Ukraine, its war crimes and other serious international crimes committed in Ukraine, including the crime of aggression. We also condemn Iran and the DPRK who are complicit in Russia’s indiscriminate war against Ukraine and killing of civilians by providing weapons and ammunition to Russia.
Russia must compensate all the damage. The Registry of Damage is already functional. Furthermore, international compensation mechanism, which may include a claims commission and a compensation fund, will have to be established to cover all losses of the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian people. Eventually immobilized Russian assets could be used for this purpose in absence of voluntary compensation,
The Baltic States reiterate our full commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
We call again on Russia to unconditionally, completely and immediately withdraw all its military forces and equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
I thank you.