Trina Saha
Deputy Counselor for Political Affairs
New York, New York
March 17, 2021
AS DELIVERED
Today’s meeting is a continuation of Russia’s misuse of its seat on the Security Council to organize events on Ukraine that are designed to distort the realities of the Russia-fueled conflict in eastern Ukraine and its purported annexation of Crimea.
Today, Russia is commemorating its March 17, 2014 announcement claiming the “reunification” of Crimea with Russia.
In other words, Russia has asked us to gather here in recognition of the Russian Federation’s flagrant disregard for international law, including the UN Charter’s implicit principle that no country can change the borders of another by force.
The United States does not recognize the purported annexation, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. The United States is committed in its support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We call on Russia to immediately cease its ongoing aggression in Ukraine, to implement the commitments it signed onto under the Minsk Agreements, and to return full control of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
As we saw at the March 12 Arria-formula meeting on Crimea and during the February 23 General Assembly Debate, Ukraine has broad international support for its sovereignty and territorial integrity. When the General Assembly has voted on resolutions on the human rights situation and Russia’s militarization of Crimea in recent years, the voting record is clear: Russia lacks support from the majority of the international community.
Crimea is Ukraine.
Thank you.
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