Ukraine's envoy to UN reminds Russia it's not February 2014 now

22.02.2022 11:01

Ukrinform

Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya has said that Ukraine is committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis created by Russia, while reminding the Kremlin that "it is not February 2014, it is February 2022. Another country. Another army."

According to Ukrinform's correspondent in New York, he stated this at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in Ukraine.

"Today the entire membership of the UN is under attack. Under attack by the country that occupied the membership of the Security Council in 1991 bypassing the UN Charter, the country that occupied parts of the territory of Georgia in 2008, the country that occupied parts of Ukraine in 2014," Kyslytsya said.

He said the recognition of the occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine may be considered as unilateral withdrawal by Russia from the Minsk Agreements as well as its disregard of the decisions taken in the framework of the Normandy Four. This step undermines peaceful efforts and ruins the existing negotiating frameworks, he added.

Kyslytsya noted that today Moscow's decision "legalizes" the presence of its troops, which have actually been in the occupied areas of Donbas since 2014. "A country that has fueled the war for eight years is not able to maintain peace, as it claims," he said.

He recalled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has sent a request on the basis of the Budapest Memorandum to the guarantors of security of Ukraine, demanding immediate consultations. Ukraine also insists on the full-fledged operations of the OSCE SMM to prevent provocations and further escalation. He expressed hope that an emergency summit of the Normandy Four would be held.

Kyslytsya stressed that everything must be done to make sure that the problem of Donbas is resolved through the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, as Russia stated itself.

Ukraine demanded that Russia cancel the decision on the recognition of "DPR/LPR" and return to the table of negotiations. It also condemned the order to deploy additional Russian occupation troops in the territories of Ukraine, demanding the immediate and complete verifiable withdrawal of the occupation troops, Kyslytsya said.

He noted that "the Kremlin copy-pasted word by word the decree on Georgia of 2008."

"No creativity whatsoever. The copying machine in the Kremlin works very well. Who is the next among the members of the UN?" Kyslytsya said.

Early on Tuesday, the UN Security Council convened an extraordinary meeting to discuss the latest developments related to Russian aggression against Ukraine.