Dear Secretary General,

Dear representatives of the UN Member countries,

Allow me to express my gratitude to the Secretary General and the UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka for their briefings.

We have positively estimated the latest report of the Secretary General on the issue of Women, Peace and Security of September 2016 and its recommendations. We are supporting the work of the two new structures within the Organization. These are the Unofficial Security Council Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and the Network of National Coordinators of the UN Member Countries on Women, Peace and Security.

Protection of women’s rights in conflicts is a joint responsibility of the international community.

Let me switch to Russian to speak on the issue of the Ukrainian women in the war that was started against Ukraine. I would like to appeal to the Russian Federation citizens and to tell the truth about the war in Donbas and sufferings of the Ukrainian women and children to them.

Unfortunately, Ukraine from its own experience knows how horrible is the impact of conflict on women.

Millions of people have become victims of the Russian military aggression since spring 2014. The Russian Federation is ultimately responsible for the human rights violations in the occupied Crimea and Donbas.

Women and children are the most vulnerable groups in war. According to the latest data there is 1 700 000 internally displaced persons in Ukraine of which approximately 900 000 are women and 236 000 are children.  

495 Ukrainian women have been killed in Donbas for the last two years. 68 children have been killed and 152 have been wounded since the beginning of the conflict.

2130 military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine including two women have perished from the beginning of the conflict. They have defended their native land from the aggressor.

1937 children have become orphans because of the war. 1213 women have become widows and 1975 women have lost their sons. 142 women are still waiting their relatives to be released from the captivity in the separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The problem of women’s and children’s rights violation on the temporally occupied territories is especially complicated.

The Russian occupation troops and their mercenaries take Ukrainian women in captivity. According to the Security Service of Ukraine data 238 women have been taken in captivity in the separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for the last two years. By now 233 women have been found and released due to the efforts of the Ukrainian authorized agencies. 5 more women are still in captivity.

The widely known Kremlin prisoner N. Savchenko spent two years in the Russian prison. Another Ukrainian woman, a journalist M. Varfolomeyeva was kept in prison in the occupied Luhansk for almost a year. So who do you think had Ukraine to give back to the occupants to release the Ukrainian women? These were the Russian career military persons. Aleksandrov and Yerofeev were transferred to release N. Savchenko and Ivan Horbunov was passed to release M. Varfolomeyeva.

This is the symbol of the war in Donbas – Russian men fight against Ukrainian women and children, kill and mutilate them, take them captives.

Violence against women and girls has always been the part of conflicts and sexual violence is used as war weapon. The information is available of the facts of human trafficking on the occupied territories, sexual violence and exploitation, cases of involvement of young people in military actions that are incompatible with the human rights standards and unacceptable in the modern world.

Some more examples. Last month shocking facts of gender-based violence and crimes committed by the militants of the so-called Piatnashka brigade on the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk region were made public.

In particular, there is information about the establishments where minors have been forced into sexual services; facts of human trafficking and situations of forced migration of women and children; foreign citizens who created a studio to produce children’s pornography and spread the materials abroad; facts of recruiting and military training of children. By now the group of young people accused of “diversions” is kept in prison in the separate areas of Donetsk region. Photos of their interrogation were published in the Internet by the militants. In those photos scared children in tears are making kind of “confession” in crimes.

According to the human rights advocate’s information every fourth person who have been in captivity of the pro-Russian militants became a victim or a witness of gender-based violence. Human rights advocates underline that sexual violence is used as a part of tortures to spread panic and fear among the military and inhabitants. 

The mentioned facts are illustrative of the real human rights situation on the temporarily occupied territories.

The detailed information is very scarce. The Ukrainian authorities have no objective data on the issue of gender-based violence because the Ukrainian law enforcement bodies do not function on the occupied territories and the evidence base on sexual violence cases cannot be collected.

Taking into account the mentioned fact I would like to appeal once again to the UN to include the issues of sexual violence in the conflict in the East of Ukraine inspirited by Russia into the Organization’s mandate. It is vital for us to know that the UN not only declares its support but takes particular steps to assess the situation on the local level and to represent it in the reports of the Secretary General and further recommendations.

As for the particular steps made by our country under Women, Peace and Security agenda in the situation of the foreign aggression and occupation of the part of country territory, I would like to mention the following:

Ukrainian women - politicians, public figures, volunteers, human rights advocates are actively engaged in the peacemaking process and their role in the actualization of the Women, Peace and Security agenda is very significant. It is an important fact that President of Ukraine has appointed a woman for the position of the Commissioner for peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas.

 In February 2016 the Ukrainian government adopted the National Action Plan for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The implementation of the Plan will help promote more active women’s participation in the peacekeeping process, decision-making process in the sphere of national security and defence and fighting against gender-based violence.

The aggression against Ukraine has not only enhanced women's participation in the peacemaking processes, but also increased the level of women’s involvement in military services. Many women have volunteered for military service to protect their homeland.

At present there are 19 892 women (2 458 officers, 17 044 noncommissioned officers and soldiers) in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 266 of them were recruited to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

For a year we have taken some special measures to integrate gender issues into the ongoing reforms in the security sector. Although these actions are only initial they have already given the first results in the transformation of military structures and military culture.

This year the list of military specialities and professions available for women have been significantly expanded.

We also consider it necessary to adopt the posts of gender advisers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Besides, we are planning to adopt inclusive legislative measures to destroy gender barriers and ensure the equality of women in the armed forces, and to strengthen the parliamentary control in the national security and defence sector.

To ensure the effective response on violence against women the Parliament is going to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and Combating these Actions.

The relevant draft laws have been already submitted to the Parliament, and I hope the Parliament will ratify the Convention in autumn 2016.

In the conclusion, I would like to stress that Ukraine is aiming at further active promotion of women's rights, their participation in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction and also at protecting women against all forms of violence.