Colleagues, the world has rallied around President Trump’s call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Ukraine has agreed. And we echo that call once again today.
Yet week after week, night after night, we see the number of Russian assaults grow.
June was the deadliest month yet, and July is on track to be even deadlier.
This makes a mockery of the diplomacy that Russia claims to support.
And the consequences are ever more devastating for the people of Ukraine.
Across five nights from the 18 to 23 July, Russia launched over 940 drones and 59 missiles at Ukrainian cities, killing 20 civilians and injuring a further 216.
Just days before, a record-breaking 728 long-range drones were launched on Ukraine in a single day.
Since the start of the invasion, over 13,500 civilians have been killed and more than 34,000 injured. This includes more than 200 children killed or injured since March alone.
We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitised to these figures. Behind each Russian strike there is a person, a family, a community whose lives have been torn apart by Russia’s brutal military invasion.
The Shygyds are one such family. On 5 June, as a Ukrainian firefighter arrived at the scene of a Russian attack on Chernihiv, he discovered that his wife, his daughter, and his grandson had all been killed.
His grandson was only a year old. Three generations lost to cold-blooded Russian brutality in just one night.
This is not an isolated incident. Families like The Shygyds are being torn apart across Ukraine and have been since February 2022.
Russia has a clear and unqualified obligation to uphold the UN Charter.
Russia also has an obligation to respect the Geneva Conventions and to the protection of civilians under international humanitarian law. There is simply no justification for brutal aggression like this.
The reality is clear: Ukraine, a country illegally invaded by Russia, continues to show its commitment to peace. But President Putin prefers war.
He is shunning diplomatic efforts made in good faith to bring an end to this horror, a horror of his own making.
There is no ambiguity about what needs to come next.
It is time for Russia to stop prevaricating and agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as the first step towards a just and lasting peace.
