Odessa after missile attacks. Photo from the archive Head of the General Assembly: the international community must support Ukraine in its quest for peace Peace and security
Speaking at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, GA Chairman Dennis Francis called on the international community to stand with Ukraine “in its quest for justice and peace.”
“A series of flagrant violations”
He noted that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 marked the beginning of a series of “blatant violations of the UN Charter and international rights.”
“You should not turn a blind eye to the ongoing destruction and devastation, or ignore the plight of the people of Ukraine,” Francis emphasized, addressing the GA delegates. Moreover, he continued, this year also coincides with the tenth anniversary of the “illegal annexation in 2014 by the Russian Federation of Crimea and other Ukrainian territories.”
The suffering of the Ukrainian people
With reference to the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Francis said that the number of killed and injured civilians in January this year increased by 37 percent compared to November 2023. He recalled the numerous destructions and other consequences of armed clashes.
“We must not lose sight of the fate of Ukrainian children, thousands of whom were torn from their families and forcibly deported to Russia,” the speaker added, “These innocent children, illegally abducted , must be repatriated to Ukraine and immediately reunited with their families.”
“Peace Formula” proposed by Ukraine
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who arrived in New York to participate in meetings dedicated to the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of his country, reminded members of the General Assembly of the ten-point “Peace Formula”. Ukraine, he said, is making every effort to mobilize international support for this plan. He said that over the year the number of countries and international organizations that joined the Formula Peace increased from 15 to 82.
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“This is not a Western project. This is a truly global initiative based on the UN Charter and the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly,” the minister explained, saying that Ukraine, together with its partners, continues to prepare for the Peace Summit, which is to be held in Switzerland.
Russia: there are no temporarily occupied territories
Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Vasily Nebenzya noted in his speech that “for everyone who is capable of an independent, unblinded analysis of the situation,” it is obvious that the topic brought up for discussion at the UN General Assembly today has nothing to do with reality. “The reality is that there are no temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” the diplomat emphasized. “But there are Russian regions: Crimea, the tenth anniversary of reunification with which we will celebrate in March, and the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which joined as a result of the legal expression of the will of the people.”
As for the “Formula of Peace,” Nebenzya called the initiative “an ultimatum to Russia” and a “utopian project.”