On Tuesday, February 23, the UN General Assembly meeting was held with a lengthy debate on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
This was reported by the UN press-service in the General Assembly plenary 54th and 55th meeting summary.
According to the summary, speakers from 30 Member States, as well as the European Union delegation, participated in the debate on Ukraine, seven years after conflict erupted in the eastern Donbas region and after the Russian Federation annexed Crimea following a referendum on its political status.
Ukraine’s representative said that sovereign control of Ukraine over its State borders should be renewed, adding that United Nations peacekeepers could be deployed in a monitoring role. “It is often said that history is written in ink; luckily the Russian occupation laws are written in pencil and will be erased,” he said. The Russian Federation’s delegate countered that the Ukrainian authorities, eagerly assisted by Western countries, are exploiting baseless allegations to ensure their survival.
Reports demonstrating that the Russian Federation violates international norms and principles include those by the Secretary-General, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), their missions, and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.
“If Russia doesn’t agree with all the mentioned resolutions and reports, it should simply provide access to Crimea to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission,” Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sergii Kysytsia said. To avoid further humanitarian catastrophes, he underlined the critical importance of granting international organizations access to the temporarily occupied territories. Ukraine guarantees such access throughout the Government-controlled territory and continues to demand from the Russian side to do the same on the temporarily occupied territories.
“The Russian Federation will be held fully responsible for all crimes committed against Ukraine and other countries it invaded and their citizens,” Kyslytsia concluded.
The EU representative Silvio Gonzato welcomed Ukraine’s efforts to continue seeking justice through international legal instruments and courts. Mr Gonzato said the Russian Federation’s illegal annexation of Crimea remains a direct challenge to global security, with grave implications for the international legal order protecting State territorial integrity, unity and sovereignty.
Reaffirming the bloc’s condemnation and consistent non-recognition of the illegal annexation, he said: “The issue is not only a serious bilateral or European concern, but a global one”, and the bloc will continue to support Ukraine’s resilience.
The General Assembly will reconvene at 10 a.m., on 3 March, to take action on several draft resolutions, including one on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict.