EU Statement - UN Security Council: Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine

Check against delivery Madam President, I would like to thank the briefers for sharing their assessment of the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. First, let me reiterate a point that we have made time and again, which has to do with our fundamental commitments to the rules-based international order including the UN Charter. Any violation of the Charter has to be condemned by all members of the international community, in unequivocal terms. The EU reiterates its resolute condemnation of Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, which is yet another blatant violation of international law by Russia. Russia’s war comes with dramatic and unpredictable consequences beyond Ukraine, but its destructive impact on Ukraine itself – the victim - has been particularly vast in scale and gravity. In its latest report, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission has noted a further increase in civilian casualties over in April and May. The aggression has caused over 46,000 civilian casualties, as verified by the UN. The EU therefore continues to condemn in the strongest possible terms the atrocities committed in Ukraine by Russia in the context of its war of aggression. These include indiscriminate and targeted attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, extrajudicial executions (including summary executions of prisoners of war and civilian detainees), the systematic and widespread use of torture and other forms of...