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Mr. President,   I would like to thank you for convening this urgent meeting on the situation in Ukraine. Let me also thank the Under-Secretary General Jeffrey Feltman for his briefing. The bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Balkan wars is taking place even as we speak. Last Wednesday in this hall the Security Council members once again expressed concern and urged all parties to the conflict, including Russia, to return to the Minsk agreements and ensure their prompt and full implementation in order to prevent even more destruction and bloodshed.

Alas what we saw over the weekend was more deadly shelling, more destruction, more human tragedy caused by the Kremlin’s unbridled mercenaries, including the deadly attack against Mariupol which this Council failed to condemn because Russia put protecting the militants above condemning the perpetrators.

After 29 open briefings and no progress on the ground it is hard not to sound repetitive. More than five thousand dead, some 11000 injured and about 1.5 million displaced, - such is the cost of Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine.  Almost 50 000 fled their homes since 14 January this year. At least 262 people were killed between 13 and 21 January alone.  Last week again 75 to 115 shelling attacks against the Ukrainian positions took place every day. 

The Donetsk airport which the Kremlin-sponsored militants captured last week, was pounded to rubble by months of attacks, causing destruction seen only in the worst of wars. 550 square kilometres of land have been captured by the illegal militants since the beginning of the ceasefire. Such are the realities of what we continue to call a ceasefire.

Just like the breaches of the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration, the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the 1997 Agreement between Russia and Ukraine on the presence of the Russian Black Sea fleet, the 1997 Treaty on friendship, good-neighbourliness and cooperation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the Geneva statement, and the Berlin joint declaration, the Minsk agreements are just another casualty of Russia’s aggression against neighbouring Ukraine. 

One does not seek peace by arming illegal fighters in a neighbouring country with advanced artillery systems, multiple rocket launchers, truckloads of arms and ammunition, and tanks. One does not seek peace by sending own troops and commandos to fight on the soil of its neighbour. One does not seek peace by continuous threats and intimidations vis-à-vis one’s neighbour nor by annexing parts of the neighbour’s territory.  One does not seek peace by a continuous barrage of hate-mongering propaganda and lies aimed at dehumanising and demonising one’s neighbour. As long as Russia persists on this course, let us be frank, peace in Ukraine has no chances.                                    

Mr. President,

Last Saturday Ukraine suffered the second deadliest single incident on its soil since the downing of MH17  in July 2014. Some 30 people killed and about 90 wounded during the shelling of the city of Mariupol. In the preceding days, the self-proclaimed boss of  the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” Zahkarchenko had repeatedly stated his disdain for the ceasefire: "There is no ceasefire. We will fight. I promise." "There will be no more ceasefires and rotations, he said. There will be no attempts to talk about ceasefire from our side. Kiev does not understand that we are now able to attack on three fronts at once."  And then hours before the tragedy: "Today the offensive against Mariupol begins. In a few days we will swallow the Debaltsevo Kettle." Notably, a day before the deadly attack Russia's Ambassador to the OSCE Andrey Kelin anticipated Mariupol’s “liberation” in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. 

And yet, in spite of the obvious, Russia continues to blame Ukraine for ceasefire violations, including the Mariupol attack. Anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is not abating. Last week in this hall we heard the long debunked myths of "the junta", "the coup", "fascist Ukraine", and "oppression of Russian speakers" being once again resuscitated and put into use. For a year now, aggressive anti-Ukrainian propaganda has been used to brainwash, confuse, distract and obfuscate.

The international community should not, must not give in to these obfuscations.  Therefore let me ask once again. How can a bunch of illegal militants expand their offensive, continue capturing territory, and threaten carrying out attacks on three fronts? How can  a bunch of illegal militants without external trade ties, without income or budget,  amass hundreds of  armored combat vehicles, artillery systems, and rocket launchers, all those Tochka-Us, Grads, Uragans, and Buratinos?  How can they afford modern tanks, each of which costs at least 4 million dollars? How can they claim their own air fleet? How can hundreds of Russian soldiers be dying on Ukraine's soil if they are not even there?

How come hundreds of Russian mothers receive the dead bodies of their sons in Cargo 200 from a conflict to which Russia claims it is not a party? How come that in spite of the devastating lawlessness and countless crimes committed by the separatist militants and registered in the reports by OHCHR, Russia has not even once, not even mildly condemned the perpetrators? All of the above as well as Russia’s persistent protectiveness of the illegal militants speak to Russia's direct involvement in and support for the war against Ukraine.  Back in August last year the same Alexander  Zakharchenko said thousands of Russian citizens, including many professional soldiers, were fighting alongside the separatists- and the suddenly retracted his statement, just like he retracted the boasting about attack on Mariupol when that attacks turned out too bloody.  Another notorious character, the Russian commando Igor Girkin aka Strelkov who had played a big role in stoking war eastern Ukraine, had recently boasted to the press about having started  the war by crossing the border with his squad, saying  if it hadn't been for them there'd have been no separatism. A few days ago he also said the Crimea referendum was carried at gunpoint- something many of us have been repeating since the bogus plebiscite was held. 

Mr. President,

Life in eastern Ukraine may have been far from perfect due to long years of neglect by the successive governments. And yet the local inhabitants, many of them Russian speakers had homes to return to after work, had their daily lives and their daily bread. Thanks to the Kremlin's decision to "protect" them, they now have no homes, no jobs, no income, may have lost their dear ones- or may be dead themselves. Russia's war, Russia's proxies and the abysmal lawlessness they imposed that brought destruction, displacement, and deaths to the region.

In spite of all ceasefire violations and military attacks, the Ukrainian leadership firmly maintains that the Minsk agreements are the only way forward towards peace. The Minsk agreements, however, must be implemented by all parties to the conflict, Russia included, and in full, without arbitrary revisions and manipulations.  The onus is on Russia to put an end to this senseless war by ending support to illegal armed groups operating in the east of Ukraine, accepting  international monitoring of the Ukrainian-Russian border, withdrawing its troops and weaponry from eastern Ukraine, ensuring the release by the illegal militants of all illegally detained persons, including Nadia Savchenko, ending manipulations of humanitarian assistance, and reaffirming its respect for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity. The international observers, including the UN and OSCE monitoring missions must be provided full and unconditional access to the whole territory of Ukraine, including Crimea. Their reporting is indispensable to get the facts straight.