11 September 2014, 20:24
(Oslo, 11-12 September, 2014)
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Europe has lived through two world wars, the largest armed conflicts in world history, which brought death and suffering to millions of people on the continent.
The experience of the two world wars teaches that there can be no winners in the third world war. It will be the end of mankind. However, this sad experience also teaches another lesson: the unprecedented tragedies of many peoples and countries and countless losses of human lives were a direct outcome of policies aiming to appease the aggressor, bend to its arrogant challenges and predatory demands.
Mindful of those horrible lessons, the international community has been working hard over the last seventy years to create a global system of security checks and balances. A system of modern international law has been developed enabling us to avoid the recurrence of devastating wars. Respect for human rights, the rule of law and democracy have become key values ??for today's Europe. The road to understanding the exceptional significance of these values has been long and difficult. It took sixty years for the Council of Europe, which at the outset consisted of just ten Member States, to bring together countries of the whole European continent.
But very regrettably, the spectre of a great war is now haunting again our common European home.
Part of my country’s sovereign territory - Crimea – has been treacherously occupied by Russia; that has been followed by the annexation of this Ukrainian peninsula. In this autonomous republic of Ukraine, Russia has seized all military stations, public institutions, corporate and private assets; the monetary system has been changed to the Russian currency, people are forced to change their nationality, educational establishments have been made to adopt the curricula of Russian schools and universities.
In the east of the Ukrainian land, the Russian neighbour has unleashed a massive campaign of terror and violence against the Ukrainian population. Terrorists kill and torture people, take hostages, including media workers and international observers, and terrorize the civilian population, which is used as a “human shield”. There is an immense flow of modern military equipment and weapons across the Russian border while Ukrainian military positions as well as Ukrainian cities and villages are demolished with artillery and rocket fire coming from the Russian territory. In late August, there came a full-scale incursion of Russian regular armed forces, including heavy military equipment convoys and special paratrooper units. This picture of aggression is aggravated by an unprecedented concentration of Russian military power at our eastern and southern borders, which may become instrumental for a full-scale continental war.
Each and every day Ukrainian society lives through a deep trauma - hundreds of Ukrainian are killed, thousands become homeless and lose confidence in their future - to the persistent tune of Moscow’s official statements claiming it is not involved in the events it has itself engineered in Ukraine. Isn’t this cynical and utterly inhuman policy reminiscent of the events on the eve of the previous two world wars?
The Russians have a saying: "Nobody's a thief until caught." They have been caught. More than once, more than twice. There is too much irrefutable evidence: weapons, Russian soldiers, the flow of financing and arms from Russia, abducted Ukrainian children and citizens of Ukraine who have been captured and forcibly moved to the Russian territory. However, Russia keeps saying: "We have nothing to do with it. It's Ukraine or the United States or the EU, or the entire Western world. Not Russia". So citing new evidence or speaking about new facts is pointless. We have to admit that the size of the body of evidence will change nothing. The world already knows the actual perpetrator of the bloodshed going on in Ukraine. Russia has created a new area of instability and armed conflict in Europe; it continues to act in the same vein aiming to further undermine the foundations of Ukrainian statehood and exacerbate instability in Europe.
I want to stress that the Ukrainian leadership and Ukrainian people are determined to uphold their independence, defend the territorial integrity, avert further civilian and military casualties, and protect and rebuild the national economy.
This philosophy lies behind the peace plan and the decision made by the Ukrainian leadership to attempt to stop the carnage by engaging in a negotiating process. The first agreements reached in Minsk mostly allow addressing military and humanitarian issues: an immediate ceasefire, exchanging prisoners and the wounded, minimising threats to civilians and reviving urban infrastructures. Unfortunately, the fragile peace in the east of Ukraine is threatened by continuous and deliberate provocations by Russian mercenaries and separatists who carry on combat operations against Ukrainian military units in order to subvert the negotiating process. The objective of these provocations is clear – thwarting a political solution of the crisis, continued Russia’s war against Ukraine and turning the eastern and southern Ukraine into a “black hole” of a new armed conflict in Europe.
Dear Colleagues,
Ukraine is grateful to the international community for the support, strong condemnation of the Russian military aggression and imposed sanctions. However, we urge the international community to take further necessary and effective measures to stop the aggression by Russia, which cynically flouts the fundamental principles and norms of international law. The price of further delay is a growing number of casualties, including among civilians, the responsibility for which lies solely on the Russian invaders. Thus the idea of further pressure on Russia through new sanctions is still relevant even after Minsk. A fragile truce and strained ceasefire can be replaced by a durable peace and long-term stability only on the condition of a complete withdrawal of Russian regular troops and mercenaries together with military equipment and weapons from the Ukrainian territory as well as the imposition of a full and strict control over the border between the two States. I would like to emphasise here that Ukraine thinks that an indispensable element of stabilisation should be a rigorous supervision by OSCE and other international observers over the withdrawal of Russian troops, equipment and weapons from the Ukrainian territory and preventing the violation of the Ukrainian border by the Russian military. Until this happens, we cannot stop coordinating our actions and reduce our pressure on the aggressor.
I want to recall that Russia's aggression is not aimed only against Ukraine. In a broader context, it is a threat to the whole of Europe and to the entire world. It attempts to totally dismantle the existing system of international relations and international law, challenge its fundamental principles and poison the atmosphere of trust among States. Now is a time of crisis for the global community.
We should jointly compel the Kremlin to stop immediately the delivery of weapons and financing mercenary terrorists and to withdraw Russian commandos from Ukraine. This is the only way to restore peace and stability in Ukraine and beyond.
Shedding their blood on the Maidan barricades during the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine and her people have deserved a peaceful life in our common European home. For the first time in the history of our continent, millions of people rose to fight, ready to sacrifice their lives for a dream of European unity, for the right to live in a European family that upholds the fundamental values of identity, the rule of law, democracy, peace and stability.
There is no alternative to the European integration of our country. This month, simultaneously with the European Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada will ratify the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. We sincerely thank all the countries and parliaments who have supported us by ratifying this Agreement.
The Ukrainian government and people are making every effort to overcome all the challenges and return the country to peaceful democratic development. We urge our international partners to support us on our way to a united Europe and in accomplishing democratic change and reform in Ukraine - and also to furnish assistance, including military and technical one, in our fight against the aggression.
I believe that together we can overcome this crisis.
Ukraine has always sought peace, democracy and stability. We believe that together we will not allow the times of terror and intimidation to be brought back by those who are bent on global domination.
Thank you.