Security Council

8270th Security Council Meeting: Letter from Permanent Representative of Ukraine

As civilians bear brunt of four-year-old conflict in Ukraine, continued ceasefire violations test credibility of global community, officials warn Security Council at 8270th meeting.
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The conflict in eastern Ukraine was not only alive — with 1.6 million people displaced and escalating violence — but it embodied a broader threat to the global rules‑based order, with tens of thousands ceasefire violations recorded in 2018, the Security Council heard today, as it considered the situation for the first time in 15 months.

Briefing the Council this afternoon, senior political and humanitarian officials from the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) voiced concern that the situation in the Donbass region remained volatile and the use of prohibited weapons such as landmines threatened some 600,000 civilians near the contact line between Ukraine and the contested area. Providing a snapshot of the situation, they outlined escalating clashes, attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and obstacles humanitarian personnel faced attempting to reach some 3.4 million people in need of assistance.

Council members, for their part, urged the parties to cease all hostilities and resume negotiations to reach a lasting political solution. Some emphasized the need for a balanced resolution and respect for all the positions of all parties, while others described the conflict’s history as deep‑rooted and complex. Delegates also voiced concern over the Russian Federation’s aggression and its wider implications for the international, rules‑based order and the sovereignty of nations.

“The conflict [in eastern Ukraine] continues to test the credibility of international and regional organizations and erodes the trust Member States need to work together in the interest of Europe’s stability,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, Under‑Secretary‑General for Political Affairs. Repeated pledges to respect the ceasefire as laid out in the 2015 Minsk agreements had failed to end the fighting, now in its fifth year. Destruction and immense suffering continued, she said, noting that the civilian death toll stood at more than 2,700, with up to 9,000 injured. Diplomatic talks under the auspices of the Normandy format and the Trilateral Contact Group had not reduced the volatility on the ground, while the relative calm that had held in the beginning of 2018 had tumbled, in April and May, with a sharp increase in the number of victims.

Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary‑General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that civilians continued to bear the brunt of the conflict. Noting that civilians on the ground regularly risked shelling, sniper fire and landmines, she stressed that civilians must be protected and urged all parties to respect international law. Despite repeated appeals, water treatment workers and facilities continued to be targeted, including eight attacks against the Donetsk filtration station — which supplied water to over 345,000 people — in the last 40 days. Families lived in damp basements and more than 100,000 children attended schools with windows lined with sandbags. “Wars have limits,” she said, urging all parties to avoid and minimize civilian harm.

Ertuğrul Apakan, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, said that since January, more than 100,000 ceasefire violations had been recorded. Following a short pause in the violence over Easter, fighting had increased, mainly in two areas in the Donetsk region. Describing the use of artillery such as multiple launch rocket systems, he urged the immediate removal of such weapons — prohibited under the Minsk agreements — especially from populated areas. The OSCE Mission continued to facilitate dialogue, enabling much‑needed repairs on the ground and to document the human cost of the conflict. Since the start of 2018, it had registered 107 civilian casualties, most caused by shelling, mines or improvised explosive devices.

Stephanus Blok, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, said the conflict had put pressure on Ukraine’s young democracy. Calling on the Government to continue its reforms, he said the illegal annexation of Crimea and the Russian Federation’s destabilizing role in Donbass had contravened Article 2, paragraph 4 of the United Nations Charter, which prohibited the use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of any State. Further, on 17 July 2014, 298 people — mostly citizens of his country — had died when a Malaysia Airlines plane had been shot down over eastern Ukraine, from a location controlled by Russian‑backed separatists. Recalling that reports had recently identified the missile system as belonging to the Russian Federation’s army, he called on the that country to accept responsibility.

Jacek Czaputowicz, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland and Council President for May, spoke in his national capacity, saying 2018 marked the fourth anniversary of the “Revolution of Dignity” sparked by the Ukrainian people’s will to be part of the broader community of the West. “This spirit will not be broken”, either by the illegal annexation of Crimea or the conflict in the east of the country, he said. Urging the international community not to forget the lingering conflict, he cited systematic human rights violations by the Russian Federation in the occupied territories and called on the United Nations to take up its role in defence of civilians. Calling on the Russian Federation to reverse its unlawful aggression, he said also urged the United Nations to deploy a full‑fledged peacekeeping mission to the conflict zone and create a position of special envoy for Ukraine.

Pavlo Klimkin, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said the conflict was an external aggression designed to destroy his country’s statehood “only because we did not want to be a part of the so‑called Russian world”. Indeed, the Russian Federation’s reaction to findings on the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 had been the same as those following recent chemical attacks in Syria and Salisbury, United Kingdom — first, denial and later, when caught “red‑handed”, refusal to recognize the conclusions of investigative bodies. “The Kremlin, in pursuit of its grand geopolitical agenda, does not appreciate the value of human life,” he declared.

The representative of the Russian Federation, refuting those allegations, said his country was not in a state of war with any other nation. Kyiv authorities suppressed dissidents and were fostering a new Nazism to “Ukrainianize” the country, he said, citing those as reasons why the people of Crimea had decided to move away from Ukraine. Donbass residents had not been as lucky, he continued, emphasizing that Ukraine continued to ignore many elements of the Minsk agreements. Turning to the downing of flight MH17, he said his delegation would only trust investigations in which the Russian Federation was a full participant.

Also speaking today were representatives of Equatorial Guinea, France (also on behalf of Germany), Peru, Sweden, United Kingdom, Côte d’Ivoire, Kuwait, United States, China, Bolivia, Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.

The meeting began at 3:10 p.m. and ended at 5:58 p.m.

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