Madam Chairperson,

On behalf of the delegation of Ukraine, allow me to deliver a statement on the subject of “The seventh anniversary of the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Seven years ago, on 20 February 2014, the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine started, bringing about numerous human losses and the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Despite the order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and numerous United Nations General Assembly resolutions on the human rights situation in occupied Crimea, the Russian occupation authorities are implementing a policy of oppression against Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian communities in Crimea, violating their political, cultural and religious rights in a manner that amounts to racial discrimination.

The aggressor State is seriously violating norms of international humanitarian law by changing the demographic composition of the local population, forcibly drafting Ukrainian citizens in Crimea into its armed forces and enforcing the application of its legislation. The Russian Federation has already conducted 11 illegal conscription campaigns on the peninsula. Since the beginning of the occupation, the number of persons conscripted into the Russian armed forces has already reached about 28,000.

The Russian Federation’s increasing militarization of Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is endangering the Black Sea region, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. It is detrimental to the environment and hampers the economic development of the Black Sea littoral States. In full defiance of the respective United Nations General Assembly resolutions 73/194 as of 17 December 2018, 74/17 as of 9 December 2019, 75/29 as of 7 December 2020 “Problem of the militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, as well as parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov” and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Resolution as of 8 July 2019 on this subject Russia is continuing to transform temporarily occupied Crimea and its adjacent waters into a Russian military outpost in the region of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

We are gravely concerned that, year by year, Russia has been increasing the number and scale of its combat training activities in the vicinity of the borders with Ukraine. The Russian Federation’s building up of forces for offensive military exercises can potentially lead to unpredictable escalatory actions, emanating from temporarily occupied Crimea and affecting the overall stability of the Black Sea basin (pdf presentation).

At the very beginning of September 2020, Russia conducted a special exercise of the Black Sea Fleet and airborne troops with the involvement of army transport aviation. It was followed by the active phase of the strategic command and staff exercise “Kavkaz‑2020” in the last third of September. According to reports, 80,000 troops were involved in the exercise. It seriously aggravated the security situation in the region and posed a direct military threat to Ukraine, especially from the direction of temporarily occupied Crimea.

Additionally, the exercise “Kavkaz‑2020” saw more than 12,000 servicemen taking part in all kind of special preparatory exercises, snap inspections and other training activities. The Russian military armada involved in the exercise consisted of 50 combat ships, 5 submarines, 250 helicopters, 300 aircraft, 250 armoured combat vehicles and 450 tanks.

The main goal of “Kavkaz‑2020” was to work out the strategic operation capabilities of the Russian forces in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov region.

As a result, the Russian Federation managed to increase the combat readiness of its armed forces for offensive actions and developed its abilities to deploy troops stationed in temporarily occupied Crimea far beyond the Black Sea region.

Compared with the pre‑occupation period, Russia has considerably more than doubled, indeed closer to tripled, the strength of its military on the peninsula, from 12,500 to over 32,500 persons. This military contingent also includes 410 armoured vehicles, more than 195 tanks, 283 multiple‑launch rocket systems and artillery systems, 50 helicopters and 100 airplanes of different types. By 2025, the number of Russian troops, armaments and military equipment on the temporarily occupied peninsula is expected to further increase.

The Russian Federation has been preparing military infrastructure on the temporarily occupied peninsula for the deployment of nuclear weapons, including the refurbishment of the infrastructure of Soviet‑era nuclear warheads storage facilities. Potential carriers of nuclear weapons, such as warships, short-range missile systems and combat aircraft, have already been deployed there.

Russia has significantly reinforced its air component, additionally deploying all types of aviation: bomber, assault, fighter and close aviation support. Hvardiyske and Belbek airfields are currently suitable for operating strategic long-range bombers.

The current military capabilities have enabled Russia to establish anti-access and area denial zones (A2/AD) around the peninsula, strengthened by sophisticated surface and subsurface surveillance information systems.

The increased combat capabilities of the naval component are alarming, primarily on account of the deployment of new carriers of “Kaliber”-type cruise missiles. As of today, the total number of missiles in one salvo is 84. Intelligence sources report that by 2025 the Russian Black Sea Fleet is to possess 25 “Kaliber” missile carriers and that its salvo is to be more than doubled.

In militarizing the Crimean Peninsula, Russia is seeking to gain full control over the Black Sea basin by demonstrating its military power and by increasing pressure on Ukraine and other regional countries pursuing policies of European and Euro‑Atlantic integration. On a regular basis, Russia deliberately violates air borders of the Black Sea countries, testing their air defence capabilities. Its aviation carries out simulations of cruise missile launches targeting ships on the Bosporus and in naval bases in the Black Sea.

By conducting naval exercises in the Black Sea, Russia imposes significant restrictions and blocks important merchant routes in international waters, inflicting economic losses on all countries in the region. Under the pretext of naval exercises in the Black Sea, the Russian Navy is constantly creating multiple denial zones. In some cases, their total area is almost a quarter of the Black Sea basin.

The social and economic destabilization of Ukraine’s coastal regions remains among the goals of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. According to the preliminary estimates, in the period from 2014 to 2021 companies operating in the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk lost revenues of more than 6 billion Ukrainian hryvnia owing to the Russian restrictions. This amount does not include losses and additional costs related to ship down time and reorientation of cargo transhipment flows.

At the same time as turning Crimea into a large military base, the Russian occupation administration is destroying the peninsula’s natural and cultural heritage. For example, the conservation status of 40 objects classified as nature reserves has been illegally downgraded.

To revert these trends, more co‑ordinated and persistent efforts of international community are needed, protecting rules-based order, and enabling de‑occupation of Crimea by peaceful means.

On 14 January 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on the admissibility of inter‑State claims in Ukraine’s case against the Russian Federation No. 20958/14 (concerning Crimea).  Ukraine brought three other cases against the Russian Federation before the ICJ and the arbitral tribunals under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The ICJ case is related to Russia’s violations, in Crimea, of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Arbitral tribunals are considering violations of the rights of Ukraine as a coastal State in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and in the Kerch Strait and to the illegal detention of three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 members of their crews on 25 November 2018.

In order to enhance and broaden the response to the occupation of Crimea and other related breaches of international law by the Russian Federation, Ukraine has initiated the establishment of the Crimean Platform as a new consultation and co‑ordination format.

Immediately after the attempted annexation of Crimea, Russia unleashed a second phase of armed aggression in the Ukrainian region of Donbas.

In an organized, orderly and deliberate way, units of the Russian Special Operations Forces (Spetsnaz) and other armed formations of the Russian Federation, with Russian military on “leave” and military advisors without any insignia, seized local authorities, police stations and Ukrainian military sites in Donbas and conducted military operations against Ukrainian army and law enforcement officers. Severe and unceasing fire was directed from the territory of the Russian Federation against Ukrainian border guards and armed forces. Russian military units carried out a military invasion, employing heavy weapons and other means, and participated in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. Quite a number of Russian servicemen were captured during these hostilities.

Russia’s military presence in the temporarily occupied parts of Donbas is ongoing. The illegal crossing of the segment of Ukrainian-Russian State border temporarily not under control of the Government of Ukraine by convoys, military equipment aimed at reinforcement and rotation of the armed formations of the Russian Federation has become routine. Information on these breaches of the State border of Ukraine are regularly reported by the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM).

These indisputable facts are duly registered and confirmed. Documentary and other evidence of Russia’s role and direct participation in the armed conflict against Ukraine has been communicated by the Ukrainian side to the international law institutions.

Any claims by Russian officials that Russia is playing a mediatory role in the peaceful settlement of the conflict do not stand any ground. The Russian Federation was and remains a fully fledged party.

From the very first day, the Russian Federation has deliberately violated the Minsk agreements and those reached within the Normandy Four (N4) format, which remain the backbone of the peaceful settlement of the conflict, negotiated under the mediation of Germany and France. As just one example, I would cite Russia’s seizure of Debaltseve and other Ukrainian territories six years ago several days after its signing of the 2015 Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements and the decision to hold a ceasefire along the contact line.

All further actions of Russia until now have been directed at undermining efforts to end the conflict and to reach peaceful reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

For its part, Ukraine has taken unprecedented steps to find ways to advance the peaceful settlement of the conflict. We have invested enormous effort in fulfilling the N4 agreements reached in Paris on 9 December 2019. To this end, the Ukrainian side has put forward numerous proposals and initiatives, in particular within the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), for the implementation of the agreements in the humanitarian, security and political fields.

Despite all our efforts, the work of the TCG is being blocked under various pretexts, as attested, for example, by the refusal of the Russian side even to finalize the decisions agreed on the expert level. Here we are referring to the initiatives on numerous important matters: further disengagement of forces and hardware, demining, implementation of the political part of the overall agreed conclusions of the Paris Summit, opening of the entry-exit checkpoints on the contact line, and the fulfilment of the next stage of mutual release of detainees and exchange of respective lists.

One of the most tangible outcomes of the past months, the TCG decision on additional measures to consolidate the ceasefire of 22 July 2020, is put to the test every day by the ongoing armed provocations on the part of armed formations of the Russian Federation. On a daily basis, the armed forces of Ukraine are being put under fire and shelling from a variety of sources ranging from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, small arms and snipers to Minsk-proscribed weapons and combat drones used to drop grenade shells, not to mention distant mining.

The Russian armed formations are actively developing new forward positions and reinforcing the existing ones, conducting offensive and subversive activities in full disregard of the provisions of the TCG decision of 22 July 2020. Since the entry into force of this decision on 27 July 2020 our delegation has kept the FSC constantly informed of these violations.

These reckless actions by Russia and its forces in Donbas endanger the lives of Ukrainian defenders and civilians, further devastate the conflict-affected region, and jeopardize the fragile ceasefire regime.

International organizations, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross, still do not have access to the affected communities and illegally detained persons on the territories under temporary Russian occupation. The SMM’s freedom of movement is being severely restricted by the Russian armed formations, including its freedom of movement to the segment of the State border temporarily not under the control of the Government of Ukraine.

Notwithstanding these negative developments, Ukraine remains fully committed to the politico-diplomatic peaceful settlement of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine based on the principles of the Minsk agreements, including the Minsk Protocol of 5 September 2014, the Minsk Memorandum of 19 September 2014, and the Minsk Package of Measures of 12 February 2015. We stand ready to work on the implementation of these documents in both the TCG and N4 formats.

Ukraine is grateful for and highly values the mediation efforts of the OSCE and our partners Germany and France in seeking solutions calculated to eventually bring peace to Ukraine.

The Russian Federation must stop misleading the whole civilized world with its ungrounded statements that it is not a party to the conflict. Its direct role and participation in the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine is well documented and well known to the international community.

Russia must recognize its responsibility for unleashing armed aggression against Ukraine and make every effort to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict that it initiated and continues to sustain.

We urge the Russian Federation to stop its aggression against Ukraine, reverse its illegal occupation of Crimea, de-occupy parts of Donbas, and restore freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, through the Kerch Strait and in the Sea of Azov. Russia must fully implement its commitments under the Minsk agreements, including the withdrawal of its armed forces, mercenaries and armed formations and weapons from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson, I kindly ask for this statement to be attached to the journal of the day.