Dear organizers, guests and participants of the conference “The ongoing war in Ukraine and influences of external actors – security challenges for Europe and the region”, 

Your Excellencies, 

Honorable Minister Slavjanka Petrovska,

The challenges we all face today are direct consequences of the war russia waged against Ukraine.

The full-scale invasion of the russian federation into Ukraine led to the temporary occupation of almost 20% of the territory of Ukraine and irreparable loss among the civilian population and military personnel.

The war waged by russia against Ukraine is a multidimensional, large-scale humanitarian crisis for the whole world. Moreover, this war unleashed by the kremlin has made it difficult for the global community to recover from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- now I would like to name the biggest consequences of the war of the russian federation against Ukraine:

- the killing of the Ukrainian civilian population and military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;

- torture and abuse of Ukrainians; detention of Ukrainian civilians as prisoners of war, in respect of whom the russian federation does not comply with the conventional mechanism for ensuring basic human rights;

- abduction of Ukrainian children and their forcible transfer to the russian federation;

- russia is launching missile and drone attacks to kill civilians, and destroy the energy infrastructure, which have no military purpose. The only goal of their missile terror is to deprive the civilian population of the basic services, such as electricity, heating, and water, amid the onset of cold temperatures. These  actions of russia amount to genocide;

- in connection with the “partial mobilization”, Russia as the occupying state, violating the norms of humanitarian law, conducts it in the temporary occupied territories of Ukraine. Russia forcibly sends mobilized Ukrainians to the war zone and forces them to fight against their fellow citizens;

- kidnapping and abductions are increasingly taking place in the occupied territories;

- shelling by russian forces has destroyed or damaged at least 270 religious sites and 783 objects of cultural heritage were destroyed;

- the environmental damage in Ukraine caused by russia’s war is estimated at more than 27 bln EUR; mining of natural landscapes and agricultural lands of Ukraine; chemical soil contamination with heavy metals;

- nuclear blackmail by the russian federation and subsequent illegal attempts to annex Ukrainian territories;

- illegal appropriation of nuclear power facilities and criminal irresponsible behavior at nuclear infrastructure facilities;

- migration crisis; around 7.7 million refugees fleeing Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, while an estimated 8 million people had been displaced within the country;

- the scaling up of the russian disinformation campaign, including by changing the discourse from the "denazification" of a people that, in putin's opinion, does not exist to an "existential confrontation with the collective West";

- russian cyber attacks on critical infrastructure facilities of Ukraine and EU and NATO countries;

- with supplying weapons to russia for their use in the war on Ukraine, Iran has become an accomplice in russia’s crime of aggression, war crimes and missile terrorism.

-  violation of the principles of the UN Charter; violation of the norms of international law and the principles of the international legal order;

- interruptions in the supply of Ukrainian wheat and corn to African countries, which may cause a situation for these countries in which they might actually be on the verge of starvation;

- an increase in prices of energy sources and a change in the market structure in order to ensure energy security (independence from russia in the import of key energy sources)

- rising inflation, which limits the mobility of the monetary policy;

- change of the global security space.

The list can be continued, the named consequences could be further detailed and expanded, and each consequence can be a separate topic for discussion. The list could be systematized according to the relevant criteria.

The devastating consequences of russia's war against Ukraine can only be grasped by understanding the genesis of the russians' criminal acts. Russia deliberately chose the path of killing Ukrainians and liquidating Ukraine as a state. In other words, russia continues the genocide of Ukrainians.

Yale University professor Timothy Snyder, in his recent speech at a conference in Berlin called “International Law Against Genocide”, voiced 6 indicators that prove intent to commit genocide:

1) to describe a state as "not a state", something that putin is doing exactly and something that the policy of the russian federation is focused on;

2) in order to destroy a certain social group, to call a people not a people, a nation not a nation; that is, in all of putin's speeches, Ukrainians are foreigners who just happened to be on the territory of Ukraine;

3) the denial that this person is a human being – this is the rhetoric of the russian federation during the process of committing war crimes on the territory of Ukraine;

4) the aggressor state denies that a previous genocide has taken place - the Ukrainian Holodomor of 1932-1933 organized by communist russia led by stalin; russia also did not recognize the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people;

5) the theory of so-called “replacement” – when one nation thinks that it can come and take the territory of another nation that legally lives there, the full-scale invasion of the russian federation into the territory of Ukraine

6) Professor Snyder called the sixth indicator the "postmodern indicator" - when other people see so much evidence of the crime of genocide that they doubt that it is, in fact, genocide. There is too much evidence: deliberate killings of the civilian population, including children and pregnant women, torture, rape as a mechanism of the "military operation of the russian federation", including children, extermination of entire Ukrainian families - Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, Makariv, Mariupol, Lyman, Izyum; the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the russian federation, the bombing of residential buildings with cruise missiles, terror by Iranian drones.

The second article of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide lists multiple acts that, when committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, are considered an act of genocide. These include killing members of the group, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group and others.

There is more than enough evidence of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the russian federation on the territory of Ukraine. The parliaments of a number of countries have already adopted a decision to condemn the crime of genocide in Ukraine committed by russia - these are Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Canada, Lithuania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ireland.

On May 19, 2022, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on "The fight against impunity for war crimes in Ukraine".

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe became the first international organization to designate the current russian regime as a terrorist one (Resolution 2463 of 13 October “Further escalation in the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine”).

We will be grateful if the parliaments of other countries make appropriate decisions regarding the condemnation of the genocide of the Ukrainian people.

We urge every state to consider joining a Special Tribunal initiated by Ukraine to punish russian military and political leadership for its crime of aggression.

Protecting the right to life of Ukrainians, the existence of the Ukrainian state, the European values, Ukraine has the reliable support of EU and NATO member states. This support is multidimensional, from financial aid to military aid - supplying weapons, training the military.

We hope that the delivery of weapons for Ukraine will be prompt, and that the missile and air defense systems will be supplied in a sufficient amount in order to avoid more casualties.

As you may already know, on 30^th of September, Ukraine signed an application for accelerated accession to NATO, which requires consensus by all Member States.

Ukraine is the only unique example of a state that, despite full-scale aggression, maintains institutional capacity and full control, is committed to all social obligations, and, moreover, continues to implement reforms. Our country counts on the positive changes of NATO member-states’ stance who used to be skeptical for the Ukrainian state’s accession to the Alliance.

If the Alliance sets additional measures, which Ukraine has to take in order to successfully complete the process of accession to NATO, Ukraine will fulfill them all. We would like to ask for support for this process.

I would especially like to thank the Republic of North Macedonia, which supported all sanctions packages, provided support for all Resolutions which are related to assistance to Ukraine within the framework of international organizations, supported the format of the Crimean Platform, is a participant in the Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform, the session of which was held yesterday, for providing humanitarian aid from the very first days of war, as well as essential military aid.

Thank you for your attention and support of Ukraine!