Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
U.S. Representative to the United Nations
New York, New York
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Mr. President.
Since World War II, the United Nations Charter – the key tenets of which this Council is mandated to uphold – has stood as a bulwark to the worst impulses of empires and autocrats. Earlier today, Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, announced that Russia will recognize as “independent states” the so-called DPR and LPR regions, the sovereign territory of Ukraine, an area controlled by Russia’s proxies since 2014. He has since announced that he will place Russian troops in these regions. He calls them peacekeepers. This is nonsense. We know what they really are. In doing so, he has put before the world a choice. We must meet the moment, and we must not look away.
History tells us that looking the other way in the face of such hostility will be a far more costly path. Russia’s clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is unprovoked. It is an attack on Ukraine’s status as a UN Member State, it violates a basic principle of international law, and it defies our Charter. What is more, this move by President Putin is clearly the basis for Russia’s attempt to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine. The consequences of this action will be felt far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
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