Mr. Chairperson,

I would like to deliver a statement on the subject of Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 150 wounded as a result of Russian air strikes on Ukraine on 24–26 July. Over last week, the Russians have launched nearly 1 700 attack drones, more than 1 630 guided aerial bombs, and 95 missiles of various types against Ukraine, more than half of which were ballistic and hypersonic.

The Russians are deliberately targeting residential buildings, civilian vehicles and infrastructure. In Chernihiv, a Russian drone attacked a food supermarket, killing a child and an adult and wounding 20 people.

The Russians are terrorizing civilians and attacking Ukrainian cities, as they are unable to break the resistance of Ukrainian forces at the front.

Ukraine will respond to air terror with strikes on Russian facilities: weapons manufacturers, the oil industry and other legitimate military targets.

Distinguished Colleagues,

On 28 July, Ukraine commemorated the Day of Remembrance for Ukrainians tortured by Russia. It is known that 406 Ukrainians died in Russian captivity, including both prisoners of war and civilians who were unlawfully detained.

Four years ago, on the night of 28–29 July 2022, the Russia committed one of the most heinous war crimes against Ukrainian prisoners of war by carrying out the mass murder of Ukraine’s defenders at the former Volnovakha Correctional Colony near the temporarily occupied settlement of Olenivka.

Russia killed more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war and injured more than 130 others in the Olenivka prison

Ukrainian service members, who, following their evacuation from the Azovstal steelworks, were entitled to protection under international humanitarian law, were deprived of the most fundamental right – the right to life.

Four years have passed, but Russia has still not returned those who survived the explosion and continues to hold them in inhumane conditions.

Ukraine calls on the international community to intensify political, diplomatic and sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation, ensure the use of all available international legal mechanisms to hold accountable both the direct perpetrators and those who ordered or concealed the mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka, and secure unimpeded access for international humanitarian organisations to all places where Ukrainian POWs and civilian hostages are held.

Ukraine further urges the International Criminal Court, other international judicial institutions and competent national authorities to continue investigating this crime and ensure full accountability.

Esteemed Colleagues,

The international Sea Breeze 2026 exercises, in which servicemembers of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine participated, have concluded in the United Kingdom.

Ukraine has been participating in Sea Breeze exercises since 1997 and has established itself as a reliable partner.

Until 2022, the Sea Breeze exercises were held in the waters of the Black Sea and on Ukrainian territory. From 2023, the exercises have been hosted by the United Kingdom. The resumption of international exercises in the Black Sea will contribute to strengthening navigational security.

Meanwhile Russia is systematically attacking civilian cargo vessels in the Black Sea and Ukrainian port infrastructure.

Ukraine is grateful to the UN Security Council member-states that supported the Ukrainian initiative and for convening the emergency meeting devoted to Russian attacks on civilian vessels and the security of navigation in the Black Sea.

Russia's terror against global food security has been ongoing since 2022: port infrastructure, grain storage facilities and civilian vessels have all come under attack. Over 4.5 years, the Russians have destroyed 1,054 port infrastructure facilities, struck 232 vessels (more than 30 of them in summer 2026), and killed and wounded 307 Ukrainian civilians and nationals of other states in the course of these attacks.

Kremlin is seeking to block the operation of Ukrainian ports at the peak of the harvest season and halt the maritime export of Ukrainian grain.

Millions of families in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East face hunger if Russian terror is not stopped.

Just as the Soviet leadership and the Communist Party’s repressive apparatus escaped accountability for the Holodomor, the genocide of the Ukrainian people - by starving people to death, the Russian Federation is now attempting to use its unlawfully acquired status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as its membership in international organizations, to obstruct international accountability and evade responsibility for the similar crimes it has committed.  

Ukraine will employ all available means to ensure freedom of navigation to Ukrainian ports and to protect maritime lanes, port infrastructure, civilians, and national security, exercising its inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter

Distinguished Colleagues,

Ukraine is grateful to its European partners for the swift adoption of the 21st package of sanctions against Russia.

The further strengthening of restrictive measures demonstrates the European Union’s consistent and united policy in support of Ukraine, in opposing Russia’s occupation and in limiting the aggressor State’s capacity to finance and wage its war.

Ukraine counts on determined action by all our Allies and partners to ensure that the Russian leadership faces the full political, economic and legal consequences of its crimes. The international community must not allow the perpetrators of today’s crimes to escape accountability, as the Communist repressive apparatus largely did after 1933.

The impunity of the Soviet regime must not be repeated in the case of its present-day successor, the Russian Federation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.