Threats to international peace and security Lessons Learnt from the Minsk Agreements
THREATS TO INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY (LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE MINSK AGREEMENTS IN CONTEXT OF THE COUNCIL’S PREVENTION EFFORTS)
Madam President,
I thank Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča and Ambassador Martin Sajdik for their briefing to the Council this morning. We recall that when the Council met to discuss the implementation of the Minsk Agreements on 17th February last year, we expressed, at that time, concerns over the largely unimplemented provisions of the Agreements, but also the hope that in furtherance of the Council’s resolution 2202 (2015), the crisis in the Eastern regions of Ukraine would be settled through peaceful means. Today, all masked interests are exposed and the further consideration of the Minsk Agreements rendered almost moot. For as we all very well recall, exactly one week after the Council’s consideration of the matter, Ukraine’s
sovereignty and territorial integrity were assailed by its neighbor, the Russian Federation, and an attempt subsequently made to annex the concerned territories in Ukraine.
Madam President,
During last year’s meeting, we also bemoaned the 14,000 human lives that had been lost since the conflict in Eastern Ukraine as well as the 2.9 million people who had been displaced. The situation as we speak today is far worse. Because of the aggression against Ukraine, according to best estimates available, some 180,000 Russian soldiers may have died in addition to about 120,000 Ukrainian civilians and troops. Many Ukrainian civilians have also been needlessly injured by the Russian attacks and an estimated 8 million refugees have been registered across neighbouring countries, while some 5.4 million people have been recorded as internally displaced. These figures show the horrors of war and the futility of seeking to establish one’s interests abroad through the use of force. There are reports of increasing civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.
We remain deeply concerned by these reports as well as the worsening security and humanitarian conditions as a result of renewed missile attacks launched over the past few days against Ukraine. We emphasize, once again, the international obligation of the warring parties to respect and uphold international humanitarian law in relation to the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in times of war. We call on all sides to adhere to the principles of proportionality and distinction which are necessary to mitigate the impact of war on the lives and livelihoods of innocent people.
Madam President,
The high rate of casualties and destruction that have followed in the wake of the war in Ukraine makes us convinced that if the concerns for the Donbas region were genuinely shared, the approach to resolving those concerns would not have been through an escalation of the conflict but rather its immediate cessation. Any hope of renewing the spirit of the Minsk Agreements would demand as a minimum condition, we believe, the cessation of hostilities to encourage the signatories and other relevant actors to recommit to the obligations arising from the Package of Measures for Implementation that accompanied the Agreement. We therefore use this opportunity to reiterate our call on the Aggressor State to bring an end to its actions with the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its troops from the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. We continue to believe that the Security Council was right in endorsing the Minsk Agreements, as settlement of the Donbas conflict, which has now been overtaken the widespread war on Ukraine, can only be achieved within the exclusive context of a peaceful means.
We therefore urge the continuing commitment of the international community in marshalling all efforts towards the peaceful settlement of the aggression against Ukraine. In bringing my statement to a close, I wish to reaffirm Ghana’s unwavering commitment to uphold respect for the sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity of Ukraine in accordance with international law and the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. We also maintain our firm position of non-recognition for the purported annexation of any Ukrainian territory.
I thank you, Madam President.