Thank you, Madam Chair.
At last week’s meeting of this Council, we discussed the violation of Polish and NATO airspace by Russian military drones. Most of us condemned this provocative move and underlined our solidarity with Poland – and with Ukraine, whose people have been suffering from relentless Russian bombardments for three and a half years. Over the weekend, Russia again violated NATO airspace when a Russian drone entered Romanian territory.
These were, at the very least, reckless actions by Russia. They underline President Putin’s disregard for peace and the threat that Russia – and its illegal war in Ukraine – poses to European and international security.
These incidents cannot be seen in isolation. They form part of a clear and sustained pattern of Russian behaviour.
Since the Alaska summit between President Trump and President Putin on 15 August, Russia has unleashed on Ukrainian cities four of the largest aerial bombardments of the war to date – on one occasion, launching over 800 missiles and drones in a single night. Recent strikes have directly hit the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers and badly damaged the British Council and EU delegation buildings in Kyiv. And now an unprecedented – and repeated – violation of NATO airspace.
These actions do not move us closer to peace; they appear designed to undermine negotiations. As US colleagues rightly said at the UN on 12 September, these actions “show immense disrespect for good-faith US efforts to bring an end to this conflict.”
Madam Chair, the UK stands in full solidarity with Poland, Romania and Ukraine. As my Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said last week ahead of her visit to Kyiv, “The UK will not stand idly by as Putin continues his barbaric invasion of Ukraine. The security of NATO and Ukraine are crucial to the UK’s security.”
Last week the UK also announced another large sanctions package targeting Russia’s oil revenues and military machine, including 70 ships from its shadow fleet. We will continue to act with our international partners to increase the economic pressure on Russia.
We are now more than 1,300 days into Russia’s so-called “Special Military Operation” that was supposed to last three days. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed and injured. There have been more than one million military casualties. Reconstruction costs have reached the hundreds of billions of US Dollars. We urge Russia to end this illegal war, to cease the reckless provocations, facilitate humanitarian access and engage in meaningful negotiations.
Thank you.
