YouSaid · the spoken record

Blinken

lines on the record: 75
first: 2021-09-23
most recent: 2023-10-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The difference between them could not be starker. One is the path offered by Hamas. We know where it leads — death, destruction, suffering and darkness. The other is the path towards greater peace, greater stability, greater opportunity, greater normalization and integration. It is a path towards people across the region being able to live, work, worship and learn, side by side. It is a path towards Palestinians realizing their legitimate right to self-determination in a State of their own. Nothing would be a greater victory for Hamas than allowing its brutality to send us down its path of terrorism and nihilism. We must not let it. Hamas does not get to choose for us. The United States stands ready to work with anyone ready to forge a more peaceful and secure future for the region — a future its people yearn for and so deserve.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“And Palestinians have a right to self-determination and a status of their own. We have no illusions about how hard it will be to achieve the two-State solution. But as President Biden has said, we cannot give up on peace. Indeed, it is precisely in the darkest moments, like this one, that we have to fight the hardest to preserve an alternative path and show people, making it real, that improving their lives in tangible ways is possible and indeed is necessary. We have heard many countries express support in recent weeks for a durable political solution. Our message today is this: help us build that solution. Help us prevent the spread of a war that will make two States and broader peace and security the region even harder to achieve. Members of the Council, we stand at a crossroads. Two paths lie before us.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“And we urge members to go a step further and make clear that if Iran or its proxies widen this conflict and put more civilians at risk, members will hold them accountable. Members must act as if the security and stability of the entire region and beyond is on the line — because it is. Fourthly and finally, even as we address this immediate crisis, we all agree that we must redouble our collective efforts to build an enduring political solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The only road to lasting peace and security in the region and the only way to break out of the horrific cycle of violence is through two States for two peoples. As President Biden has underscored from day one, Palestinians deserve equal measures of security, freedom, justice, opportunity and dignity.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“In recent weeks, Iran’s proxies have repeatedly attacked United States personnel in Iraq and Syria, whose mission is to prevent the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham from renewing its rampage. Let me say this before the Council, and let me say what we have consistently said to Iranian officials through other channels: the United States does not seek conflict with Iran. We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack United States personnel anywhere, make no mistake: we will defend our people and we will defend our security swiftly and decisively. If members of the Council, like the United States, want to prevent the conflict from spreading, they must tell Iran and its proxies, in public, in private, through every means, not to open another front against Israel in this conflict and not to attack Israel’s partners.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“To that end, we call on all Member States to send a firm, united message to any State or non-State actor that is considering opening another front in this conflict against Israel or that may target Israel’s partners, including the United States: do not throw fuel on the fire. Members of the Council — and permanent members in particular — have a special responsibility to prevent the conflict from spreading. I look forward to continuing to work with my counterpart from the People’s Republic of China to do precisely that when he visits Washington later this week. It is no secret to anyone in the Chamber or on the Council that, for years, Iran has supported Hamas, Hizbullah, the Houthis and other groups that continue to carry out attacks on Israel. Iranian leaders have routinely threatened to wipe Israel off the map.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“We are grateful to Qatar, Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross for helping to secure the release of four of the hostages held by Hamas, but at least 200 more hostages — from many of our nations, as I mentioned — are still in the grip of Hamas. Therefore, I once again implore every member here to use its voice, its influence and its leverage to secure their unconditional and immediate release. Thirdly, we are all determined to prevent this conflict from spreading. That goes to the principal responsibility of the Security Council — maintaining international peace and security. A broader conflict would be devastating, not only for Palestinians and Israelis, but for people across the region and, indeed, around the world.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“The value we place on civilian life is the driving force behind our efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. Like others, I had the occasion to meet with the families of those missing and suspected to be in the hands of Hamas on my recent trip. Several of them, as those present are aware, are with us in the Chamber today. None of us can imagine the nightmare they are living, something no family should have to endure. Their loved ones must be released immediately and unconditionally, and every member of the Council — indeed every Member of this Organization — should insist on that.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“At the heart of our efforts to save innocent lives in this conflict — and for that matter in every conflict — is our core belief that every civilian life is equally valuable. There is no hierarchy when it comes to protecting civilian lives. A civilian is a civilian is a civilian, no matter his or her nationality, ethnicity, age, gender or faith. That is why America mourns the loss of every single innocent life in this crisis, including innocent Israeli and Palestinian men, women, children and elderly people — Muslims, Jews, Christians and people of all nationalities and faiths, including at least 35 United Nations staff members. That is why it is imperative that we work to protect all civilians in this conflict and to prevent more deaths atop the many that have already occurred.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“President Biden appointed one of our most senior diplomats, Ambassador David Satterfield, to lead our humanitarian efforts, which he is currently doing on the ground. The United States has committed an additional $100 million in humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, bringing the total aid that we provided to Palestinian people over the past two and a half years to more than $1.6 billion. That makes the United States the largest single country donor, by far, to the Palestinian people. We call on all countries, particularly those with the greatest capacity to give, to join us in meeting the United Nations appeal for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“It is hard to think of an act of greater cynicism. It means that Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. It means that food, water, medicine and other essential humanitarian assistance must be able to flow into Gaza and to the people who need them. It means that civilians must be able to get out of harm’s way. It means that humanitarian pauses must be considered for those purposes. The United States has worked relentlessly to make real those principles. We continue to coordinate closely with Egypt, Israel and partners across the region, as well as with the United Nations, to build mechanisms that will enable sustained humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza without benefiting Hamas or any other terrorist group.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“Let us not forget that among the more than 1,400 people that Hamas killed on 7 October were citizens from more than 30 States Members of the United Nations, including many of the Council members around this table. The victims included at least 33 American citizens. Every one of us has a stake in, and every one of us has a responsibility for, defeating terrorism. Secondly, we all agree on the vital need to protect civilians. As President Biden has made clear from the outset of this crisis, while Israel has the right, and indeed the obligation, to defend itself, the way it does so matters. We know that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, and Palestinian civilians are not to blame for the carnage committed by Hamas. Palestinian civilians must be protected. That means Hamas must cease using them as human shields.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“As the Council and the General Assembly have repeatedly affirmed, all acts of terrorism are unlawful and unjustifiable. They are unlawful and unjustifiable whether they target people in Nairobi or Bali, in Luxor, Istanbul or Mumbai, in New York or Kibbutz Be’eri. They are unlawful and unjustifiable, whether they are carried out by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba or Hamas. They are unlawful and unjustifiable, whether victims are targeted for their faith, their ethnicity, their nationality or any other reason, and the Council has a responsibility to denounce Member States that arm, fund and train Hamas or any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“That is why we must unequivocally condemn Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack against Israel — babies riddled with bullets; young people hunted down and gunned down with glee; people, young people, beheaded; families burned alive in a final embrace; parents executed in front of their children; children executed in front of their parents; and many people taken hostage in Gaza. We have to ask, and indeed it must be asked: where is the outrage? Where is the revulsion? Where is the rejection? Where is the explicit condemnation of those horrors? We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such horror from repeating itself. No member of the Council — no nation in this entire Organization — could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“Indeed, we put forward a draft resolution that sets out practical steps that we can take together to that end. The draft resolution builds on many elements of the draft resolution (S/2023/773) that Brazil put forward last week (see S/PV. 9442). It incorporates the substantive feedback that we have received from fellow Council members in recent days. It also draws heavily on the views that I heard at first hand from partners across the region after Hamas’ appalling attack on 7 October, views that the United States shares. First, we all recognize the right, and indeed the imperative, of States to defend themselves against terrorism.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for convening this ministerial meeting and for convening the Security Council. I thank Special Coordinator Wennesland and Deputy Special Coordinator Hastings for their important briefings. We are grateful for the Secretary-General’s leadership in this incredibly challenging time, particularly in helping to get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. In addition, we express our gratitude and our admiration to the entire United Nations team, all of whom continue to serve in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable, for their incredible bravery and dedication. I am here today because the United States believes that the United Nations and the Security Council in particular have a crucial role to play in addressing this crisis.”
2023-10-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9451 (2023) · source
“I saw volunteers rebuilding homes that had been razed by Russian bombs, farmers harvesting fields, people reopening businesses, citizens clearing mines and unexploded ordnance and children returning to schools. In short, I saw a nation rebuilding and reclaiming its future. That is the right of all Members of our United Nations. That is what we defend when we stand up for the international order — the right of people not only to survive, but to thrive and write their own future. Our people, Ukraine’s people and the people of all nations get to write their own future. We cannot — we will not — let one man write that future for us.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“At the same time, as President Biden has made clear, we must continue to shore up the pillars of peaceful relations among nations, without which we will be unable to achieve any of our goals. That is why we must send a clear message, not only to Russia but to all would-be aggressors, that we will stand up, not stand by, when the rules that we all agree to are being challenged — not only to prevent conflict, instability and suffering but to lay the foundation for all that we can do to improve people’s lives in times of peace. I opened by sharing the horrors that I saw in Yahidne. Let me conclude by telling Council members what else I saw that day in Ukraine.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“Some argue that continuing to stand with Ukraine and holding Russia accountable distracts us from addressing other priorities, such as confronting the climate crisis, expanding economic opportunity and strengthening health systems. That is a false choice. We can and we must do both. We are doing both. We must work together to tackle the global challenges that are affecting our people, to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and to invest in a world where all people have an opportunity to reach their full potential. The United States is the world’s leading contributor to those efforts. As President Biden told the General Assembly yesterday (see A/78/PV.4), we will continue to do more than our share to answer the imperatives of our time.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“It is families having their children torn away from them and deported to Russia — children taken away from their parents and deported far away. It is the rubble of Mariupol. It is the mass graves of Bucha. We are not giving up, either. Indeed, since we were last here (see S/PV.9269), a growing number of countries have come together to try to forge a different way forward. In June, over a dozen countries met with Ukraine in Copenhagen to discuss the path towards a just and lasting peace — one that upholds the United Nations Charter and its core principles. Two months later, more than 40 countries, including many members of the Council, carried forward that discussion with Ukraine in Jeddah. President Zelenskyy has put forward a 10-point plan for such a peace. President Putin has put forward nothing.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“Putin said that they discussed ways to cooperate militarily, while Kim pledged the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s war of aggression. Of course, the transfer of arms between Moscow and Pyongyang would violate multiple resolutions of the Council. It is hard to imagine a country demonstrating more contempt for the United Nations and all that it stands for, especially a country with a permanent seat on the Council. President Putin is betting that, if he keeps doubling down on the violence and remains willing to inflict enough suffering on enough people, the world will cave on its principles and Ukraine will stop defending itself. But Ukrainians are not giving up, for they have seen what life would look like if they were to submit to Russian control. It is that basement in Yahidne.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“Nearly two thirds of the wheat exported through that deal went to developing countries. Not only did Putin pull out of the deal, but Russia is now mining Ukraine’s fields, bombing its ports and rails and burning its silos. As a result, Ukraine’s wheat exports will likely fall by 2.8 million metric tons this year. That is the equivalent of 5.5 billion loaves of bread trapped in the world’s breadbasket. Russia, meanwhile, is on track for a record year of grain exports. The hungrier the world, the more Moscow profits. Fifthly, Russia is using Iranian drones to attack Ukrainian civilians. Russia procured those drones from Iran in violation of resolution 2231 (2015). Finally, just last week, Russia hosted North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“First. Russia’s invasion itself violates the central pillar of the United Nations Charter, namely, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations. Secondly, Russia is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine on an almost daily basis. Thirdly, Russia continues to engage in reckless nuclear sabre-rattling, announcing that it is stationing nuclear weapons in Belarus and continuing to use Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant and its employees as a shield for its aggression, risking catastrophic consequences. Fourthly, Russia is weaponizing hunger. Thanks to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the Secretary-General and Türkiye, approximately 33 million metric tons of grain reached global markets, driving down food prices around the world.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“That is what Ukrainian families are living through every day. It is what they have experienced for the 574 days of the full-scale invasion. It is what they will endure tomorrow and the day after that for as long as Russia wages its vicious war. President Putin has openly declared from the outset that the war is aimed at erasing Ukraine from the map as a sovereign country and restoring Russia’s lost empire. In this war there is an aggressor and there is a victim. One side is attacking the core principles of the Charter of the United Nations, while the other fights to defend them. For over a year and a half, Russia has shredded the major tenets of the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international humanitarian law and has flouted one Security Council resolution after another. Let us review the situation.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“One was for the villagers whom Russian forces had executed; the other for the people who died in the basement. The oldest victim was 93 years old; the youngest six weeks old. The Russians only allowed the removal of bodies once a day. Children, parents, husbands and wives were therefore forced to spend hours next to the corpses of their loved ones. I begin here because, from the comfortable distance of the Chamber, it is really easy to lose sight of what it is like for Ukrainian victims of the Russian aggression. That is what happened in just one building, in one community in Ukraine. There are many others like it. In the past week alone, Russia has bombed apartment buildings in Kryvyi Rih, burned down humanitarian aid depots in Lviv and demolished grain silos in Odesa. It shelled eight communities in Sumy in a single day.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“Then, soldiers forced more than 300 civilians — mostly women, children and elderly people — into a basement not fit for human habitation. It consisted of just a few small rooms, with no windows, no air circulation and no running water. The soldiers held residents there for 28 straight days, using them as human shields, before fleeing when Ukrainian defenders arrived to liberate the town. In Yahidne, two residents took me into the basement where they and others had been imprisoned. My guide said that they were packed together so tightly that they could barely breathe. There was no room to sit, let alone lie down. When they cried out to their captors that people were sick and needed medical care, a Russian soldier yelled back “let them die”. My guide pointed to two handwritten lists of names on the basement wall.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for placing the focus of the Security Council on this critically important issue. I also thank the Secretary-General for the moral clarity that he has shown in dealing with Russia’s war against Ukraine. We are grateful to have been able to welcome President Zelenskyy to the Council table and thank him for reminding us yesterday (see A/78/PV.4), today and every day what is at stake in the conflict, not just for Ukraine and for Ukrainians but for all of us. Two weeks ago I was in Yahidne, a small Ukrainian town about two hours north of Kyiv. Russian forces seized the village in the first days of the invasion. They went door to door, rounding up residents at gunpoint, and marched them to the local elementary school, where Russian soldiers had set up a command post.”
2023-09-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9421 (2023) · source
“There are so many people in Ukraine who want the same thing as that little girl, Veronika — a world where they can live in peace in their own country and keep the people they love safe. We have the power. We have the responsibility to create that world today and for generations to come. We cannot and will not let one country destroy it.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“When first responders dug her from the rubble, a piece of shrapnel was lodged in her skull. Her left thumb had been ripped off. Doctors saved her life. But the attack left her right hand mostly paralysed, and she cannot see out of her left eye. In her painting, Veronika drew herself in a bright pink and orange dress, holding a bouquet of flowers. A building stands next to her. When asked who lived there, she said it was a place where all the people she knew who had been killed in the war could be safe. We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war — that is how the Charter begins. Now is the time to meet that promise.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“But we can never let the crimes Russia is committing become our new normal. Bucha is not normal. Mariupol is not normal. Irpin is not normal. Bombing schools, hospitals and apartment buildings to rubble is not normal. Stealing Ukrainian children from their families and giving them to people in Russia is not normal. We must not let President Putin’s callous indifference for human life become our own. We must force ourselves to remember that behind every atrocity in this wretched war and conflicts around the world is a human being. I recently visited an exhibit of artwork made by Ukrainian children affected by the war. One painting I saw was made by a 10-year-old girl named Veronika. Last April, Russian forces shelled her home in Vuhledar, killing her whole family.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“We give nearly 1,000 times as much as Russia to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Thirdly, we must reaffirm our commitment to upholding what the Charter of the United Nations calls “the dignity and worth of the human person”. We must continue to compile evidence of Russia’s ongoing and widespread atrocities, including executions, torture, rape and sexual violence and the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia. We must continue to document Russia’s war crimes and crimes against humanity and share that evidence with investigators and prosecutors so that one day the perpetrators can be held accountable. With day after day of witnessing Russia’s atrocities, it is easy to become numb to the horror — to lose our ability to feel shock and outrage.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“We hear the concerns of countries who worry that standing with Ukraine and holding Russia accountable is diverting focus and resources from others in need. To those countries, I would say simply: look at our actions. And when you hear Russia and its defenders accuse the countries who support Ukraine of ignoring the rest of the world, I say look at Moscow’s actions. Compare the numbers. In addition to the $13.5 billion in food aid that the United States contributed to fighting hunger over the past year, we also fund more than 40 per cent of the World Food Programme’s budget. Russia contributes less than 1 per cent of that budget. That is not an outlier. Based on the latest United Nations figures, the United States donates more than nine times as much as Russia to United Nations peacekeeping. We donate 390 times as much as Russia to UNICEF.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“Members of the Security Council should not fall into the false equivalency of calling on both sides to stop fighting or of calling on other nations to stop supporting Ukraine in the name of peace. No member of the Council should call for peace while supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the United Nations Charter. In this war, there is an aggressor and there is a victim. Russia fights for conquest. Ukraine fights for its freedom. If Russia stops fighting and leaves Ukraine, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. The fact remains that one man, Vladimir Putin, started this war. One man can end it. Secondly, even as we work to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, members of the Council must continue to address other challenges to international peace and security.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“President Zelenskyy has put forward a 10-point plan for a just and durable peace. By contrast, President Putin has made it clear that there is nothing to talk about until Ukraine accepts “the new territorial realities”, while doubling down on his brutal tactics. Members of the Security Council have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that any peace is just and durable. Council members should not be fooled by calls for a temporary or unconditional ceasefire. Russia will use any pause in fighting to consolidate control over the territory that it illegally seized and will replenish its forces for further attacks. That is what happened when Russia’s first assault on Ukraine froze in 2015. We should look at what followed.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“I expect that many countries will call for peace today. No one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people. The United States has long made clear, even before this war, that we are prepared to engage in any meaningful diplomatic effort to stop Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. But history teaches us that it is the nature of peace that matters. For peace to be just, it must uphold the principles at the heart of the United Nations Charter — sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. For peace to be durable, it must ensure that Russia cannot simply rest, rearm and relaunch the war in a few months or a few years. Any peace that legitimizes Russia’s seizure of land by force will weaken the Charter and send a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they can invade countries and get away with it.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“No country has endured greater hardship as a result of Russia’s war than Ukraine, but almost every country has felt the pain. Yet nations around the world continue to stand with Ukraine because we all recognize that, if we abandon Ukraine, we abandon the United Nations Charter itself and the principles and rules that make all countries safer and more secure — no seizing of land by force, no erasing of another country’s borders, no targeting civilians in war and no wars of aggression. If we do not defend those basic principles, we invite a world in which might makes right and the strong dominate the weak. That is the world that this organ was created to end, and members of the Council have a unique responsibility to ensure that we do not return to it. We can do that in three ways. First. we must push for a just and durable peace.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“Since the United States presided over a meeting on food security last May (see S/PV.9036), more than 100 countries have signed up to a set of concrete commitments to alleviate hunger. Thanks in large part to Secretary-General Guterres and Türkiye, the Black Sea Grain Initiative loosened Russia’s stranglehold on Ukraine’s ports and brought down the cost of grain for the world. As Moscow again tries to throttle its output, we now have to ensure that the Initiative is extended and expanded. When President Putin tried to weaponize energy, we redirected natural gas supplies from across the world so that the countries that Russia targeted could keep their people warm in the winter, and Europe took extraordinary steps to end its dependence on Russian energy.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“Neighbours set up soup kitchens to feed the hungry. There is also the story of how the international community has come together. The vast majority of Member States voted multiple times to condemn Russia’s violations of the Charter of the United Nations and reject its illegal attempt to seize Ukrainian territory. Yesterday in the General Assembly, 141 countries voted in favour of resolution ES-11/6, which reaffirms the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, denounces Russia’s atrocities and expresses support for a just and comprehensive peace, in accordance with the United Nations Charter. When President Putin tried to weaponize hunger, exploiting the worst global food crisis since the creation of the United Nations, the international community responded swiftly.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“When Ukraine launched a counter-offensive that retook large swathes of its territory, President Putin conscripted an additional 300,000 men, throwing an increasing number of Russia’s young people into a meat grinder of his own making. He unleashed the Wagner Group — mercenaries who have committed atrocities from Africa to the Middle East, and now in Ukraine. Of course, that is not the whole story of the past year. There is also the story of Ukraine’s people. Vastly outnumbered, they have fought bravely to defend their nation, their freedom and the right to determine their own future, and they have demonstrated inspiring unity in helping one another to endure Moscow’s relentless assault. Teachers and community members give classes to children in bunkers. City workers improvised patches to restore heat, power and water to residents.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“He called snap referendums in four occupied parts of Ukraine, deported Ukrainians, bussed in Russians, held sham votes at gunpoint and then manipulated the results to claim unanimous support for joining the Russian Federation. When President Putin could not break the Ukrainian military, he intensified efforts to break the Ukrainian spirit. Over the past year, Russia has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian men, women and children, uprooted more than 13 million people from their homes, destroyed more than half the country’s energy grid, bombed more than 700 hospitals and 2,600 schools, abducted at least 6,000 Ukrainian children, some as young as four months old, and relocated them to Russia. Yet the spirit of the Ukrainians remains unbroken. If anything, it is stronger than ever.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“One year and one week ago, on 17 February 2022, I warned the Security Council that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine (see S/PV.8968). I said that Russia would manufacture a pretext and then use missiles, tanks, soldiers and cyberattacks to strike pre-identified targets, including Kyiv. with the aim of toppling Ukraine’s democratically elected Government. Russia’s representative — the same representative who will speak today — called those “groundless accusations”. Seven days later, on 24 February 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Due to fierce resistance by Ukraine’s defenders, President Putin failed in his primary objective to conquer Ukraine and its existence as an independent country and absorb it into Russia. He then dusted off his Crimea playbook from 2014.”
2023-02-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9269 (2023) · source
“The stakes are clear. The choice is ours. Let us make the right choice for the world that we want and that our people so desperately deserve.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“As President Zelenskyy has said repeatedly, diplomacy is the only way to end the war. However, diplomacy cannot and must not be used as a cudgel to impose a settlement on Ukraine that goes against the Charter of the United Nations or rewards Russia for violating it. President Putin is making his choice. It is now up to all of our countries to make ours. We must tell President Putin to stop the horror that he started. We must tell him to stop putting his interests above the interests of the rest of the world, including his own people. We must tell him to stop debasing the Council and everything that it stands for. “We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined” — that is how the Preamble to the Charter starts. Let us not forget that we, the peoples, still get to choose the fate of this institution and of our world.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“The Russian mothers and fathers whose children are being sent off to fight and die in this war did not choose it, and neither did the Russian citizens who continue to risk their freedom to protest against it, including those who came out onto the streets of Moscow after President Putin announced his mobilization to chant “Let our children live”. Indeed, it must be asked, how has the aggression against Ukraine by President Putin improved the lives or prospects of a single Russian citizen? One man chose this war, and one man can end it. If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. That is why we will continue to support Ukraine as it defends itself and to strengthen its hand to achieve a diplomatic solution, on just terms, at the negotiating table.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“While Governments around the world are teaming up with international organizations, the private sector and philanthropies, in order to end the pandemic and make sure that we are better prepared for the next one, Russia is spreading misinformation and disinformation about vaccines approved by the World Health Organization, which fuels vaccine hesitancy that puts people in all our countries at greater risk. Here is the reality. None of us chose this war — not the Ukrainians, who knew the crushing toll it would take; not the United States, which warned that it was coming and worked to prevent it; not the vast majority of countries at the United Nations; and neither did our people or the peoples of virtually every Member State, who are feeling the war’s consequences in greater food insecurity and higher energy prices.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“Yet although more than 100 countries have signed a road map to provide food aid to those who need it, with partners across Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe working together to increase the resilience of global food systems, Russia blocked the export of Ukrainian grain to the world for months, until the United Nations and Türkiye secured a deal to let the grain go. Russia continues to bomb and seize Ukraine’s farms and silos and line its wheat fields with landmines, raising the cost of food for people everywhere.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“Putin’s invasion is also distracting the Council and, in fact, the entire United Nations system from working on the serious issues that we all want to focus on, such as preventing a climate catastrophe, aiding tens of millions of people on the brink of famine, fulfilling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and shoring up our interconnected health security. Those are all issues that make a tangible difference in the lives of the citizens whom we are here to represent and that they are looking to us to deliver on. An overwhelming majority of the States Members of the United Nations are committed to working together on those issues, and our actions show that.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“That is a diabolical strategy to violently uproot thousands of Ukrainians, bus in Russians to replace them, call for a vote and manipulate the results to show near-unanimous support for joining the Russian Federation. That is right out of the Crimea playbook. As with Crimea, it is imperative that every member of the Council and, for that matter, every Member of the United Nations, reject the sham referendums and unequivocally declare that all Ukrainian territory is and will remain part of Ukraine and that no Russian claim to annex territory can take away Ukraine’s right to defend its own land.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“That is coming from a country that, in January, in this place, joined the other permanent members of the Security Council in signing a joint statement affirming that “Nuclear war can never be won, and must never be fought”. That is yet another example of how Russia violates the commitments that it has made before this organ, and yet another reason why nobody should take Russia at its word today. Every Council member should send a clear message that such reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately. Russia’s effort to annex more Ukrainian territory is another dangerous escalation, as well as a repudiation of diplomacy. It is even more alarming when coupled with the filtration operation that Russian forces have been carrying out across parts of Ukraine that they control.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“The more setbacks Russian forces endure on the battlefield, the greater the pain they are inflicting on Ukrainian civilians. Russian attacks on dams, bridges, power stations, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure are increasing, constituting a brazen violation of international humanitarian law. This week, President Putin said that Russia would not hesitate to use “all weapons systems available” in response to a threat to its territorial integrity — a threat that is all the more menacing given Russia’s intention to annex large swaths of Ukraine in the days ahead. When that is complete, we can expect that President Putin will claim any Ukrainian effort to liberate that land as an attack on so-called Russian territory.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source
“Survivors’ accounts are also emerging, including a man who described being tortured by Russian forces for a dozen days, during which time his interrogators repeatedly shocked him with electric charges, and in his words, “Beat me to the point where I didn’t feel anything”. Those are not the acts of rogue units. They cut a clear pattern across the territory controlled by Russian forces. That is one of the many reasons that we support a range of national and international efforts to collect and examine the mounting evidence of war crimes in Ukraine. We must hold the perpetrators accountable for those crimes. It is also one of the reasons that more than 40 nations have come together to help the Ukrainian people defend themselves, which is a right enshrined in Article 51 of the Charter.”
2022-09-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9135 (2022) · source