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STORY: UN / UKRAINE
TRT: 5:14
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 29 AUGUST 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
29 AUGUST 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations:
“We once again reiterate that attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law. We condemn all such attacks, wherever they occur. They are unacceptable and must end immediately.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations:
“However, as large-scale attacks against civilians persist and civilian casualties rise, the current diplomatic momentum is at risk of rapidly fading if the focus on the need to end the violence and engage in genuine peace talks is not maintained. We therefore urge all concerned to urgently de-escalate the situation and to redouble efforts to create conditions for inclusive diplomatic efforts towards a cessation of hostilities and a just peace.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations:
“We renew the Secretary-General’s appeal for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire. A ceasefire that results in a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in Ukraine – one that fully upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, in line with the UN Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions. The United Nations remains ready to support all efforts to this end.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United Kingdom:
“We are appalled by the suffering that Russia has inflicted on civilians, including a guard at the British Council office who was among those injured and hospitalized. We're equally outraged by the damage these strikes caused to neighboring EU delegation building. But if Russia thinks it can intimidate us, it is wrong. This will only strengthen UK and Western resolve to support Ukraine.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kelley, Acting US Representative to the United Nations:
“Russia must decide now to move toward peace. The leaders of Russia and Ukraine must agree to meet bilaterally. President Trump has warned of further economic measures the United States could take if Russia instead chooses to continue this war. Measures which could have far reaching impact on Russia's future economic prosperity. The United States calls on the Russian Federation to avoid these consequences by stopping the violence and engaging constructively in the war.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Dmitry Polyanskiy, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“Every such tragedy is intentionally whipped up to blame the deaths of Ukrainians civilians on Russia, to appeal to Western sponsors and international donors, to demand the introduction of new sanctions, and to angle for new arms deliveries. And that happened today as well, before our eyes, with the complicity of Western members of the Security Council, the lives of the civilians of Ukraine have been turned into a bargaining chip and human suffering is becoming a way to achieve mercenary and foreign policy goals.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Dmitry Polyanskiy, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“These sorts of trends that in particular emerged during the recent American summit in Alaska are keeping the Zelenskyy regime up at night, as well as its European sponsors. And so that is why they are doing everything they can to try to outmaneuver the positive understandings achieved in Alaska, or at least to distort them.”
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine:
“Let me be clear. These killings are deliberate acts of terror. It’s formed decision taken by Moscow to continue its systematic campaign to terrorize civilians and extinguish any semblance of normal life.”
17. Wide shot, Security Council
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine:
“Peace requires both strengthening security assistance to Ukraine and intensifying pressure on Russia until it demonstrates a genuine readiness for negotiation in a good faith. As long as Moscow rejects peace initiatives, it's imperative to intensify diplomatic, economic, military pressure on Russia.”
19. Wide shot, Security Council
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Stavros Lambrinidis, Head of the European Union Delegation to the United Nations:
“We will, of course, not be intimidated. Such blatant violations of international law and the inviolability of diplomatic premises only strengthen our resolve to stand with Ukraine and to stand with the Ukrainian people.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
On the recent development in Ukraine, UN senior official for political affairs Miroslav Jenča said “the current diplomatic momentum is at risk of rapidly fading if the focus on the need to end the violence and engage in genuine peace talks is not maintained,” urging all concerned to “urgently” de-escalate.
The Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas spoke today (29 Aug) at an emergency meeting after Russian Federation’s missile and drone attacks overnight between 27 and 28 August - the attacks killed and injured many civilians, including children, across Ukraine.
One of the attacks also damaged the diplomatic premises of the delegation of the European Union in Kyiv and the British Council building.
According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), it has verified that since the start of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, 14,054 civilians, including 730 children, have been killed in Ukraine. 36,164 civilians, including 2,263 children, have been injured.
Jenča noted that the impact of the conflict has also spread to the Russian Federation, where local authorities have reported civilian casualties, including in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions bordering Ukraine.
The UN official once again reiterated that “attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law.”
“We condemn all such attacks, wherever they occur. They are unacceptable and must end immediately,” Jenča added.
The Assistant Secretary-General also welcomed the recent diplomatic efforts led by the United States, including the meeting between the Presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation in Anchorage, on 15 August, and the meeting between the Presidents of the United States and Ukraine and European leaders in Washington D.C. on 18 August.
He also welcomed the earlier three rounds of direct talks between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in Istanbul between May and July.
Jenča commended the exchanges of prisoners of war that have continued to take place as a result of these contacts.
However, he highlighted that “as large-scale attacks against civilians persist and civilian casualties rise, the current diplomatic momentum is at risk of rapidly fading if the focus on the need to end the violence and engage in genuine peace talks is not maintained.”
He urged all concerned to “urgently de-escalate the situation and to redouble efforts to create conditions for inclusive diplomatic efforts towards a cessation of hostilities and a just peace.”
In conclusion, the Assistant Secretary-General renewed the UN chief’s appeal for “a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire. A ceasefire that results in a just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace in Ukraine – one that fully upholds Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, in line with the UN Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
“The United Nations remains ready to support all efforts to this end,” Jenča said.
UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward told Council members, “We are appalled by the suffering that Russia has inflicted on civilians, including a guard at the British Council office who was among those injured and hospitalized. We're equally outraged by the damage these strikes caused to neighboring EU delegation building.”
“But if Russia thinks it can intimidate us, it is wrong. This will only strengthen UK and Western resolve to support Ukraine,” Ambassador Woodward stressed.
For his part, Acting US Representative to the UN John Kelley reiterated, “Russia must decide now to move toward peace,” and that the leaders of Russia and Ukraine “must agree to meet bilaterally.”
The US diplomat added, “President Trump has warned of further economic measures the United States could take if Russia instead chooses to continue this war. Measures which could have far reaching impact on Russia's future economic prosperity.”
“The United States calls on the Russian Federation to avoid these consequences by stopping the violence and engaging constructively in the war,” Kelley said.
Russian diplomat Dmitry Polyanskiy also spoke at the Council, saying that “every such tragedy is intentionally whipped up to blame the deaths of Ukrainians civilians on Russia, to appeal to Western sponsors and international donors, to demand the introduction of new sanctions, and to angle for new arms deliveries.”
He added, “with the complicity of Western members of the Security Council, the lives of the civilians of Ukraine have been turned into a bargaining chip and human suffering is becoming a way to achieve mercenary and foreign policy goals.”
The Russian diplomat also noted that there have been “positive understandings” between the US and his country, “These sorts of trends that in particular emerged during the recent American summit in Alaska are keeping the Zelenskyy regime up at night, as well as its European sponsors,” he said.
“That is why they are doing everything they can to try to outmaneuver the positive understandings achieved in Alaska, or at least to distort them,” Polyanskiy added.
For her part, Yulia Svyrydenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine reiterated, “These killings are deliberate acts of terror. It’s formed decision taken by Moscow to continue its systematic campaign to terrorize civilians and extinguish any semblance of normal life.”
Prime Minister Svyrydenko highlighted, “Peace requires both strengthening security assistance to Ukraine and intensifying pressure on Russia until it demonstrates a genuine readiness for negotiation in a good faith.”
“As long as Moscow rejects peace initiatives, it's imperative to intensify diplomatic, economic, military pressure on Russia,” she concluded.
Head of the European Union Delegation to the UN Stavros Lambrinidis also spoke at the Council.
He said, “We will, of course, not be intimidated. Such blatant violations of international law and the inviolability of diplomatic premises only strengthen our resolve to stand with Ukraine and to stand with the Ukrainian people,”
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