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I thank Mr. John Ging, the Operations Director of Operation of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for his briefing. Perhaps no other crisis has seen so many meetings this year as situation in Ukraine. The number has passed twenty and counting. Reports on the situation on the ground provided by OSCE monitoring mission and by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other institutions have been essential in understanding the real situation on the ground, and my delegation sent a request today morning to organize a briefing on the fourth report of the OHCHR later this week. In view of this, we are somewhat puzzled why this urgent meeting.

As the fourth OHCHR report which we’ll have another occasion to discuss makes clear, the rule of law has collapsed in the areas controlled by the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic and has been replaced by the rule of lawlessness and force.

Illegal armed groups, many of whom are run by Russian nationals with conflict experience in Chechnya and Transdnistria, are increasingly well equipped, with heavy weaponry, tanks and armored vehicles, ambushing and causing losses to the Ukrainian troops.

The abductions, detentions of civilians, torture and ill-treatment continue in the parts controlled by pro-Russian militant separatist groups. Local administration building are still occupied , illegal parallel institutions are being put into place, and separatist leaders announce Stalinist-style summary executions to maintain order in their ranks. Fighters take selfies with the bodies or what remains of killed Ukrainian soldiers. <In social network posts, Russian soldiers are bragging about shelling Ukraine and operating high-tech military equipment — including a Buk antiaircraft missile — inside its borders.>

Last Friday, the self-proclaimed defence minister Igor Girkin declared a state of “siege” and the introduction of “martial law” in Donetsk. Warnings were issued that all “troublemakers” would be sent directly to court-martial immediately.

Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine have threatened medical staff, stole and destroyed medical equipment and hospital furniture, and compromised the ability of civilian patients to receive treatment, expropriated ambulances and used them to transport active fighters. Attacks on hospitals by explosive weapons have also been reported. Such acts are strictly prohibited under the international humanitarian law which provides for special protections to medical units and personnel as well as to the wounded and sick.

In Crimea, in contravention of the General Assembly resolution 68/262, laws and regulations of the Russian Federation are being applied, causing confusion and jeopardizing the rights of all those who are reluctant to take Russian citizenship. Harassment and discrimination of the indigenous population of the Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians as well as and representatives of religious and other minorities continue to take place.

No wonder the humanitarian situation is deteriorating in areas under the illegal rule by armed separatist groups. According to figures recently released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, some 117,000 people are displaced inside Ukraine, and as of August 1, an estimated 168,000 people have left the country. Only in the past seven days, more than 6,200 people have been forced from their homes. Deliberate targeting by armed groups of critical utilities and illegal seizure of public and private property continue to take place.

Armed separatist groups don’t shy away from installing themselves among civilian populations, in the midst of towns, as they retreat under the pressure of Ukrainian forces. ). One recent example is Ukrainian attempts to recapture the town of Yasinovataya north east of Donetsk. A few days ago Ukrainian forces entered Yasinovataya but due to the threats to the lives of civilians, ATO command took the decision to return to their original positions on the outskirts of the town to avoid harming the local population.

As fighting continues, Ukrainian authorities have been doing what they can to issue advance warnings to the civilian populations and establish unilateral humanitarian corridors in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Horlivka, in order for the population to leave the combat areas.

Ukraine, like any other country, has the right and the duty to restore law and order within its borders, and to protect its unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. We reiterate the need for Ukrainian forces to take all necessary measures to avoid damage to civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties. At the same time, efforts by Ukrainian Government to continue the overall reform process addressing the ills inherited from the previous regime must continue.

Mr. President,

We have done a lot of calling for de-escalation in this Council. De-escalation, however, can at no times be interpreted as Ukraine’s unilateral surrender and acceptance of the dismemberment of the state. Russia, which has from the very beginning stoked the illegal war carried out by militant separatists against Ukraine, could have long prevented the current humanitarian situation from developing, bydisassociating itself from the militant separatism in eastern Ukraine, cutting off all support to the insurgents, securing its borders, and stopping the flow of Russian-made weaponry.

As the Ukrainian forces are doing what they can to free the terrain from illegal armed groups and ensure the unity of the state, we may be a long time waiting for any of that. Instead, with the Russian military buildup and military drills once again happening near Ukraine’s borders, we may be facing something else completely.