Ambassador Neil Bush responds to OSCE reports by
Ambassadors Çevik and Kinnunen on Russia’s ongoing aggression
against Ukraine.
Thank you Madam Chairperson. Ambassador Çevik, Ambassador
Kinnunen we are grateful for your reports today and all your
efforts towards a peaceful and sustainable resolution of the
conflict. Ambassador Kinnunen welcome to the forum for this first
time.
Ambassador Çevik, the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM)’s impartial, facts-based
reporting remains vital in providing an understanding of the
security situation on the ground. While your report showed that
the daily number of ceasefire violations – 239 between 7 June and
8 September – had decreased since the last reporting period, it
remains markedly higher than the months immediately following the
July 2020 strengthened ceasefire. We were also deeply concerned
that the Mission recorded a doubling of the use of weapons
proscribed under the Minsk agreements and 403 weapons in
violation of their respective withdrawal lines, 72 per cent of
which were in non-government controlled areas.
Sadly, this violence continues to lead to civilian casualties and
fatalities. 14 civilian casualties due to shelling and small arms
fire occurred in August alone – the highest monthly number of
casualties due to shelling and small arms fire since July 2020.
We urge all sides to uphold the strengthened ceasefire and cease
the use of weapons proscribed under the Minsk Agreements.
Civilians suffer the cost of failing to do so.
Ambassador Çevik, we also share your alarm at the persistent
restrictions on the SMM’s access and technical
assets. We continue to condemn the unacceptable limitations that
the Russia-backed armed formations impose on your Mission’s
ability to freely cross the line of contact, which, as you have
described today, violates the Mission’s mandate and effectively
forces it to act as three separate entities. We note that 90%
of SMM patrols’ access
restrictions during the reporting period occurred in areas held
by the Russia-backed armed formations. This is particularly the
case close to the Ukraine-Russia State border temporarily outside
of Ukrainian government control, where the Mission has also been
denied the necessary security guarantees to open long-planned and
much needed forward patrol bases.
We call on Russia to take the necessary action to ensure that
the SMM has safe and secure
access, in accordance with its mandate, throughout the entire
territory of Ukraine, which includes the temporarily uncontrolled
border and illegally annexed Crimea.
Ambassador Cevik - Thank you for the information provided on the
move of the Long Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) base to
Varvarivka. We hope that this will facilitate an increased
operation of this vital SMM asset-class, which
has been subject to an unacceptable level of jamming. We condemn
in the strongest terms all interference and targeting of the
Mission’s technical equipment, including both its cameras and UAV
systems.
Madam Chair, we reiterate our support for the Minsk agreements to
deliver a peaceful resolution to the conflict in full respect of
Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the work of
the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and the Normandy Four in this
regard. We call on Russia to withdraw its military personnel and
weapons from the territory of Ukraine and cease its support for
the armed formations it backs.
The UK strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity within its internationally recognised borders,
including its territorial waters. We do not and will not
recognise Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. The UK has
consistently stood with Ukraine in opposing all instances of
Russian aggression towards Ukraine and we will continue to do so,
including through sanctions, together with our international
partners.
