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STORY: UN / UKRAINE POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 07:06
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 24 AUGUST 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
24 AUGUST 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Wide shot, Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo addressing Council
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“Four for four and a half years, this war has brought death, destruction and displacement on a devastating scale. And the toll on civilians continues to rise. In July, more civilians were killed in Ukraine than in any month since May 2022.”
5. Wide shot, DiCarlo addressing Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“On Friday 21st August, 16 people reportedly killed and at least 140 wounded in a Russian drone strike on the largest shopping centre in the city of Kryvyi Rih. At least 23 children were reportedly among the injured. This despicable attack was a so-called double tap strike, with a second drone hitting the location just as the emergency workers rushed in to help.”
7. Med shot, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“In total, since February 2022, OHCHR has verified that at least 16,874 civilians, including 820 children, have been killed in Ukraine. 51,273 civilians, including 3126 children, have been injured. The actual figures are likely significantly higher.”
9. Med shot, Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“The Secretary-General has also expressed his deep concern about the continued escalation of the conflict, including onto the territory of the Russian Federation. In this regard, he condemned recent drone strikes that have reportedly caused multiple civilian casualties and destroyed civilian infrastructure in the Russian Federation. Just this Saturday, six people were reportedly killed in an overnight Ukrainian drone attack that hit energy, industrial and commercial warehouse facilities across the Russian Federation.”
11. Wide shot, Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“Four and a half years after the full-scale invasion began, the need to end this war could not be more urgent. The path to peace will not be easy, but the alternative a continuing cycle of death, destruction, suffering, an ever-greater escalation is intolerable.”
13. Wide shot, Council, Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher on screen
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“Drones have a persistent humanitarian impact. Civilians live in constant anxiety knowing drones are being used to track, observe and strike them with little warning. Drone operators appear to feel detached from their victims and from the law, but neither the weapon nor the distance diminishes the unequivocal obligations under international humanitarian law, regardless of the weapon or the party, to protect civilians and civilian objects.”
15. Wide shot, Council, Fletcher on screen
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, United Nations:
“We need concrete measures that protect humanitarian action, including systems for responding to strikes near convoys for improved humanitarian notification and for temporary ceasefires for evacuations. Second, help humanitarians prepare for the tough winter ahead. If energy infrastructure continues to be targeted, we face the prospect of a much worse humanitarian crisis. Do not allow the international discourse on this war to be dominated by an arms race, and work strenuously to get peaceful commerce moving again across the Black Sea. Third, we need robust debate with the states and companies driving this lethal military innovation. The onus of compliance remains with those who develop, deploy and use these systems. Battlefield technology may evolve at increasing speed, but the rules of war remain firm.”
17. Med shot, Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk
18. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“There will be no agreements at the expense of Russia's security interests. No frequency of Security Council meetings on Ukraine will change anything here. Any attempts to impose a freeze on us under the guise of a ceasefire just to give Kyiv a temporary respite to regroup and rearm are doomed to failure.”
19. Wide shot, Melnyk addressing Council
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrii Melnyk, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ukraine:
“Those who saw the wind will reap the storm. Moscow has unleashed this whirlwind and it cannot complain now about the tsunami that reaches Russia's shore, sweeping over and engulfing its fragile economy, already weakened to the breaking point. Our reply to all the baseless accusations is very simple. Ukraine is exercising its inherent right of individual self-defence, under article 51 of the charter against Russia's ongoing armed aggression.”
21. Wide shot, Council
22. Pan left, ambassadors at the Council stakeout podium
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Denmark:
“Rather than being a day of celebration, today also marks four and a half years since the start of Russia's illegal full scale military invasion of Ukraine, a blatant and continuing violation of the UN charter and of fundamental principles of international law. Russia's invasion has challenged the foundation of the rule based international order and undermined both regional and global peace and security. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have lost their lives or been injured as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Civilian casualties have risen sharply as attacks have increased. Last month, OHCHR alone recorded the highest number of civilians killed and injured in a single month since March 2022, claiming the lives of at least 437 Ukrainian civilians.”
24. Pan left, ambassadors at the Council stakeout podium
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Denmark:
“This senseless war and the immense human suffering could end immediately. Russia simply needs to accept the unconditional ceasefire that Ukraine and the international community has been calling for, for over a year and a half now.”
26. Pan right, ambassadors walk away
Four and a half years after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo today (24 Aug) told the Security Council, “the need to end this war could not be more urgent.”
DiCarlo said, “this war has brought death, destruction and displacement on a devastating scale. And the toll on civilians continues to rise.”
In July, she noted, “more civilians were killed in Ukraine than in any month since May 2022.”
The political affairs official described a recent incident where “16 people reportedly killed and at least 140 wounded in a Russian drone strike on the largest shopping centre in the city of Kryvyi Rih.”
She said, “at least 23 children were reportedly among the injured” and added that “this despicable attack was a so-called double tap strike, with a second drone hitting the location just as the emergency workers rushed in to help.”
In total, DiCarlo said, “since February 2022, OHCHR has verified that at least 16,874 civilians, including 820 children, have been killed in Ukraine. 51,273 civilians, including 3,126 children, have been injured. “
The actual figures, she said, “are likely significantly higher.”
Secretary-General António Guterres, DiCarlo said, has expressed “deep concern about the continued escalation of the conflict, including onto the territory of the Russian Federation,” and has condemned “recent drone strikes that have reportedly caused multiple civilian casualties and destroyed civilian infrastructure in the Russian Federation.”
Just this Saturday, she said, “six people were reportedly killed in an overnight Ukrainian drone attack that hit energy, industrial and commercial warehouse facilities across the Russian Federation.”
The path to peace, DiCarlo said, “will not be easy, but the alternative a continuing cycle of death, destruction, suffering, an ever-greater escalation is intolerable.”
Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, for his part said, “drones have a persistent humanitarian impact. Civilians live in constant anxiety knowing drones are being used to track, observe and strike them with little warning. Drone operators appear to feel detached from their victims and from the law, but neither the weapon nor the distance diminishes the unequivocal obligations under international humanitarian law, regardless of the weapon or the party, to protect civilians and civilian objects.”
Fletcher called for “concrete measures that protect humanitarian action, including systems for responding to strikes near convoys for improved humanitarian notification and for temporary ceasefires for evacuations.”
Second, he continued, he called on Council Members to “help humanitarians prepare for the tough winter ahead” noting that “if energy infrastructure continues to be targeted, we face the prospect of a much worse humanitarian crisis.”
He also called for “debate with the states and companies driving this lethal military innovation” as “the onus of compliance remains with those who develop, deploy and use these systems. Battlefield technology may evolve at increasing speed, but the rules of war remain firm.”
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the Council that “there will be no agreements at the expense of Russia's security interests,” and “no frequency of Security Council meetings on Ukraine will change anything here. “
Nebenzya said, “any attempts to impose a freeze on us under the guise of a ceasefire just to give Kyiv a temporary respite to regroup and rearm are doomed to failure.”
Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk said, “those who saw the wind will reap the storm. Moscow has unleashed this whirlwind and it cannot complain now about the tsunami that reaches Russia's shore, sweeping over and engulfing its fragile economy, already weakened to the breaking point.”
Melnyk said, “our reply to all the baseless accusations is very simple. Ukraine is exercising its inherent right of individual self-defence, under article 51 of the charter against Russia's ongoing armed aggression.”
Before today’s meeting Denmark’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, read a statement to mark Ukraine’s independence and said, “rather than being a day of celebration, today also marks four and a half years since the start of Russia's illegal full scale military invasion of Ukraine, a blatant and continuing violation of the UN charter and of fundamental principles of international law.”
Rasmussen said, "Russia's invasion has challenged the foundation of the rule based international order and undermined both regional and global peace and security. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have lost their lives or been injured as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Civilian casualties have risen sharply as attacks have increased. Last month, OHCHR alone recorded the highest number of civilians killed and injured in a single month since March 2022, claiming the lives of at least 437 Ukrainian civilians.”
He said, “this senseless war and the immense human suffering could end immediately. Russia simply needs to accept the unconditional ceasefire that Ukraine and the international community has been calling for, for over a year and a half now.”
