Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin delievered an address at the UNSC Ministerial open debate on "Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Conflicts in Europe"
During the UNSC Ministerial open debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Conflicts in Europe” Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin issued a statement, in which he stressed: “The Ukrainian presidency has introduced this open debate to address the fundamental challenge for Europe. Our world has become dangerously insecure and this trend is developing”.
He accentuated that conflicts in Europe hadn’t received the attention they deserve: “Given the shockwaves that European conflicts can send around the globe with grave implications for the security and stability of the world, this needs to be redressed. As events over the past decade have demonstrated, ignoring conflicts in Europe and failing to learn from them is no longer an option. We need to put security in Europe back into the focus of the Security Council.”
The Prime Minister emphasized that “strong institutions and shared standards and principles were supposed to serve as efficient safeguards for the international security order. Peaceful inter-State dialogue based on the ‘sovereign right of every state to choose its own destiny’ and ‘the respect of human rights’ are the core elements”, warning that today both of these pillars are being consistently undermined.
Pavlo Klimkin reminded that on February 20 exactly three years had passed since Russia illegally annexed Crimea, violating the Budapest Memorandum, to which they had signed up to assure Ukrainian security. At the same time Russia unveiled to the world its strategy of “hybrid warfare”, combining military action with concerted and well-funded propaganda across the globe.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister told that the disastrous results for Ukraine following that ‘unprecedented’ act of unilateral nuclear disarmament in 1994, could hardly have been envisaged: “To date 10,000 have been killed and more than 22,000 wounded in Donbas, and Crimea has become a “grey zone” marred by injustice, terror and repression. The occupying authorities commit systematic violations of human rights and they seek to destroy the identity of Ukrainians and the indigenous people of the peninsula — the Crimean Tatars.”
Winding up his address to the participants of the UNSC Ministerial open debate he said: “Europe has a central role to play in the global quest for sustainable peace. But as Europeans we must put our own house in order first. We hope that sustainable peace in Europe will start with Ukraine. But other conflicts cannot be forgotten. We do believe that the existing situation in Europe is not a deadlock and that protracted and active conflicts in Europe can be effectively resolved while potential tensions can be prevented.”