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STORY: UN / UKRAINE
TRT: 2:56
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 11 FEBRUARY 2021, NEW YORK CITY
FILE
1. Exterior shot, national flags at the UN Headquarters
11 FEBRUARY 2021, NEW YORK CITY
2. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the difficult socio-economic conditions of civilians in conflict affected areas, including through the further tightening of already severe restrictions on freedom of movement across the contact line.”
4. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs:
“Despite the ceasefire, periodic shelling and small-arms fire continue to damage or destroy homes, hospitals, schools, roads, and water systems. In 2020, around 60 incidents affected the supply of clean water and sanitation in eastern Ukraine. Mines and unexploded ordinances continue to claim lives. Humanitarian access remains a significant challenge for the UN and other international humanitarian actors operating across the contact line.”
6. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Heidi Grau, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office:
“The last year brought radical reduction in ceasefire violations. But latest tendencies have shown that it will be difficult to maintain the relative calm on the frontline if we remain blocked on humanitarian and political issues. Therefore, it is high time that all sides show commitment and responsibility.”
8. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Halit Çevik, Chief Monitor, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission:
“The SMM has observed the longest lasting reduction in violence since it began systematically recording ceasefire violations. This is about a positive outcome and it was a demonstration of political will reflected on the ground.”
10. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“Ukraine should not waste time playing dubious geopolitical games. Rather it should ensure upholding of human rights, the rights of national, ethnic and linguistic minorities and freedom of the media. And this incidentally was the case in pre-Maidan Ukraine.”
12. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
13. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Leonid Kravchuk, Head of the Delegation of Ukraine to the Trilateral Contact Group:
“No one today, I must say, is no longer deceived by the Russian attempts to convince the international community that there are no Russian military, weapons, or mercenaries in Ukraine, whereas basically, the Russian Federation has turned certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk as well as Crimea into a huge military fortress.”
14. Multiscreen, Security Council in virtual meeting
“The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the difficult socio-economic conditions of civilians in conflict-affected areas” of eastern Ukraine, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, said at the meeting of the Security Council on the situation in the former Soviet Republic.
Already severe restrictions on freedom of movement across the contact line are further tightened due to the pandemic, DiCarlo said.
The meeting of the Council, requested by Russia, marked the anniversary of the “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements”, also known as the Minsk II agreement, adopted on 12 February 2015, designed to end the conflict between the Russian-backed insurgents and Ukrainian government forces.
Over 3.4 million people are still in need of sustained humanitarian assistance. More than half of those in need are women, and 40 percent are elderly. The United Nations is particularly concerned about vulnerable groups living along the contact line, according to DiCarlo.
“Despite the ceasefire, periodic shelling and small-arms fire continue to damage or destroy homes, hospitals, schools, roads, and water systems. In 2020, around 60 incidents affected the supply of clean water and sanitation in eastern Ukraine. Mines and unexploded ordinances continue to claim lives. Humanitarian access remains a significant challenge for the UN and other international humanitarian actors operating across the contact line,” she said.
Last year, the so-called Trilateral Contact Group, comprised from the representatives from Ukraine, the Russian Federation, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed to an indefinite ceasefire, starting on 27 July 2020.
Since then, DiCarlo reported, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has reported a significant decrease in civilian casualties from exchange of fire.
While agreeing with DiCarlo that “the last year brought radical reduction in ceasefire violations,” Heidi Grau, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office warned that “the latest tendencies have shown that it will be difficult to maintain the relative calm on the frontline if we remain blocked on humanitarian and political issues.”
“Therefore, it is high time that all sides show commitment and responsibility,” Grau said.
Halit Çevik the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said that his mission “has observed the longest lasting reduction in violence since it began systematically recording ceasefire violations,” which Çevik called “the demonstration of political will reflected on the ground.”
While denying that Russia has any involvement in the conflict on the ground in Ukraine the Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said “Ukraine should not waste time playing dubious geopolitical games. Rather it should ensure upholding of human rights, the rights of national, ethnic and linguistic minorities and freedom of the media. And this incidentally was the case in pre-Maidan Ukraine.”
Also speaking at the meeting the Ukranian Head of the Delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group Leonid Kravchuk said “no one today, I must say, is no longer deceived by the Russian attempts to convince the international community that there are no Russian military, weapons, or mercenaries in Ukraine, whereas basically, the Russian Federation has turned certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk as well as Crimea into a huge military fortress.”
This was the third consecutive time Russia called a meeting of the Security Council to mark the anniversary of the Minsk II agreement and discuss the status of its implementation.
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