Dear friends of Ukraine!
I would like to brief you on recent developments around Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and try to give you a better understanding on what is going on in Ukraine.
But first all, I would express deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Royal Thai Government and Thai people for their significant and substantial support of Ukraine on the way to achieve peace. As you may know, the Kingdom of Thailand has joined 140 other countries during the vote in favour of the UN General Assembly Resolution ES11/1 demanding that Russia immediately end its military aggression against Ukraine. Thai people and businesses donated almost 7 million Thai bath supporting peace in Ukraine. And we are sure the donations will continue, we need these donations.
The Russian troops have openly attacked Ukraine on 24th of February 2022, invading Ukraine’s sovereign territory with regular troops, armored vehicles, artillery, aviation, and missiles, killing civilians and ruining infrastructure. The actions of the Russian Federation fall under the definition of aggression in accordance with the provisions of the UN General Assembly resolution 3314 "Definition of aggression". The Russian troops continue attacking Ukraine from the territory of Russia, Belarus and the temporarily occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk regions and Crimea. This is full-scale war, launched by Russia against Ukraine, not a "conflict in Ukraine", not “an operation”.
Despite significant military advantage, Russia failed to reach its key goals:
- Ukraine did not surrender in three days, as Kremlin was expecting. Kyiv as a political and military command center remains intact;
- No big cities with the only exception of Kherson were taken. Ukraine managed to establish defense and counter-attack. Russian troops regroup and attempt to control the already captured positions;
- No one greets Russia in Ukraine. In the towns temporarily under control of Russian troops, Ukrainian population is actively protesting against them. In the city of Kherson, Russian occupiers attempted to establish another fake “people’s republic”: both residents and local authorities rejected this stage show.
It should be said the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating. The residential areas of such cities as Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Mariupol, Melitopol, outskirts of Kyiv and many others, are intensively shelled, leaving daily dozens of innocent civilians killed and wounded.
The worst situation remains in the besieged city of Mariupol, in which more than 2300 civilians lost their lives due to Russian attacks and blockade. The city’s infrastructure including residential buildings and hospitals continues to be destroyed.
The UN Human Rights office recorded 1900 confirmed civilian casualties in Ukraine: 726 killed and 1174 injured.
Many people have lost their homes. The humanitarian corridors are regularly violated by the Russian troops.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees data, 3.1 mln. persons left Ukraine.
According to the preliminary estimates of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, damage to Ukraine's economy has already reached 565 bln. USD.
We urgently need humanitarian assistance and call upon governments to consider providing Ukraine with humanitarian aid.
In this regard, a number of steps have been taken to simplify the procedure of delivery of humanitarian assistance through the state border of Ukraine for the period of duration of martial law.
Ukraine received more than 70.000 tons of humanitarian aid. We are grateful to our partners and expect a more active involvement of international organizations in humanitarian aid, including establishment of humanitarian corridors blocked by the Russian troops, ensuring delivery of humanitarian relief to the medical facilities, and provision of critical food supply to the civilian population.
Anyway, Ukraine continue to fight and we will win.
Ukraine's Armed Forces fight Russia's Armed Forces, inflicting devastating blows to them. More than 100.000 Ukrainian citizens have already joined the territorial defense units. Almost 20.000 volunteers from 52 countries of the world are coming from abroad to join Ukraine's International Legion.
92% of Ukrainian citizens are convinced that we will win this defensive war against Russia. Mayors of Ukrainian towns reject Russia's proposals to surrender.
What is very important, the world supports Ukraine and Russia becomes increasingly isolated.
We welcome all steps made by foreign governments and international institutions to bring Russia to justice:
The European Court on Human Rights decided to indicate to the Government of Russia to refrain from military attacks against civilians and civilian objects;
International Criminal Court Prosecutor opened an investigation into the situation in Ukraine. The ICC investigators have already been sent to Ukraine to collect evidence;
And finally, just before yesterday, the UN’s international court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Russia to halt its invasion to Ukraine, saying the court had not seen any evidence to support the Kremlin’s justification for the war. The court ruled by 13 votes to two for a provisional order that “the Russian Federation shall immediately suspend military operations that it commenced on 24 February 2022 in the territory of Ukraine.
Further actions of international community need to be taken immediately:
- no-flight zone over Ukraine to cease the shelling of civilians by Russia and ensure the safety of critical infrastructure such as Nuclear Power Plants;
- strengthening Ukraine’s air defense system, including by providing military aircrafts;
- disconnect all Russian banks from SWIFT;
- impose trade embargo on Russia, including in oil and gas sector, as well as sales of gold and minerals;
- ban of all Russian channels of propaganda broadcasting fakes on Russia’s war on Ukraine;
- supporting Ukraine with protective equipment, ammunition, fuel, and whatever else necessary to counter the biggest army in the continent;
- deputinizing the world: ending Putin’s influence in politics, diplomacy, business, sports, culture, research & other spheres;
- encouraging private business to divest from Russian assets and currency;
- imposing a visa-regime for holders of Russian diplomatic passports, blocking new visas and residency permits and revoking existing ones for Russian officials and their families;
- Ukraine has officially appealed to the G7 countries regarding the status of Russia's and Belarus' membership in the IMF and all World Bank organizations.
The war launched by President of Russia, must be stopped. It is not in the interest of Russian and Belarusian citizens.
We are grateful to the wide Ukrainian community, who joined Ukraine in delivering the truth on Russia’s war in Europe. Protests against Russian aggression held by citizens of many nations throughout the world, including in Bangkok, demonstrate strong support to Ukraine in defending against Russia.
We call on all foreign governments to demand from the Russian President that he immediately stops his war in Ukraine. The address must be subjective and directed to the aggressor state – Russia.
Ending the war, launched by Russia, remains Ukraine's key priority. We urgently need ceasefire and humanitarian corridors for civilians to prevent further casualties.
Several rounds of the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations were held. The working groups were established, ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops are discussed. The side are working on mutual document. What is essential, no ultimatums will be accepted by Ukraine, in particular on the territorial integrity.
Priorities in the negotiations for the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy are absolutely clear: the end of the war, security guarantees, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, real guarantees for our country, real protection for our country.
We need international legally binding long-term guarantees of security. Such guarantees can be provided by the UN SC Member States and Ukraine’s neighbours, similar to the mechanism envisaged by the North Atlantic Treaty.
Speaking to the U.S. Congress on March 16, 2022 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed immediately to create an association - U-24. United for Peace - a union of responsible states with the strength and conscience to stop conflicts. The initiative’s aim is to provide all necessary assistance within 24 hours with military, humanitarian support, political, financial support to reach the peace. This association could provide assistance to those who are experiencing natural disasters, man-made disasters, who have become victims of a humanitarian crisis or an epidemic. A new alliance that will ensure that each aggressor receives a coordinated response from the world.
The war launched by Russian leadership, must be stopped. It was not Ukraine who started it, but we must stop it.
Thank you for your attention!
STAND WITH UKRAINE!