Russia’s War Will End as the UN Charter Prevails – Speech by Ukraine's President at UN Security Council

Your Excellencies,

One day in this hall it will surely be said that Russia’s war against Ukraine has ended – not frozen, not paused, not forgotten. Truly ended. 

And this will happen not because someone got tired of the war. Not because someone traded something with Putin.

Russia’s war against Ukraine will end because the UN Charter will work. It must work. Our Ukrainian right to self-defense must prevail. Our cooperation with nations of the world who value life as we do. Our territorial integrity. Our sovereignty, the independence of our country. We are defending what every nation would surely want to protect for itself. And what the UN Charter grants to all.

And it is Russia that always has to lie to justify its war. Not us. Russia cannot refer to the UN Charter to explain what it is doing against us, against Ukraine, Ukrainian people. In fact, in Russia’s perverted way, in its crooked world, it does refer to the Charter – but that’s simply insane.

Russia stayed silent because it couldn’t explain why a Russian missile recently struck a grain ship bound for an Egyptian port through the Black Sea. Russia either stays silent or lies about why its drones and missiles are found in the airspace of Poland, Moldova, Romania. Every day, Ukrainians are wounded and killed. Every day. Today, once again Russian bombs hit residential buildings. Even an ordinary bread factory became a target. What’s so threatening to Russia about making bread? Putin has no answer. And Russia never has an honest answer when asked why its army kills children in Ukraine, “defeats” schools and hospitals, and fights not for justice, but for a blackout for a neighboring nation. Putin has nothing to say if you ask him why he tries to drag Belarus into the war, why his propagandists threaten nations in the Caucasus or Central Asia, or why Russia invests the most not in human development, but in hatred. Russia has no legitimate reason – none at all – for making Iran and North Korea de-facto accomplices in its criminal war in Europe, with their weapons killing us, killing Ukrainians and helping Putin steal our land from our people.

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We know – some in the world want to talk to Putin. We know it. To meet, to talk, to speak. But what could they possibly hear from him? That he’s upset because we’re exercising our right to defend our people? Or that he wants to keep the war and terror going just so no one thinks he was wrong? It’s insane too.

From the very first second of this war, Russia has been doing things that cannot possibly be justified under the UN Charter. Every destroyed Ukrainian city, every burned village, and there are already hundreds and hundreds, serves as proof that Russia is committing an international crime. And that’s why this war can’t simply “fade away.” That’s why this war can’t be calmed by talks. Action is needed. And I am grateful to all the nations that are truly helping, in ways that save the lives of our people. 

Putin has broken so many international norms and rules that he won’t stop on his own. Russia can only be forced into peace. And that is exactly what’s needed – forcing Russia into peace as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the UN Charter.

Now, as we near the third winter of this war, Russia is once again trying to destroy our energy system, and this fall, they’re being even more cynical. They’re preparing to target our nuclear power plants, three of them – we have this information, and we have proof of this. If Russia is ready to go that far, it means – nothing you value matters to Moscow. This kind of Russian cynicism will keep striking if it’s given any room in the world.

The UN Charter leaves no room for that. And that’s why the Peace Formula leaves no room either.

In 2022, in the midst of the war, when I proposed the Peace Formula, I was proposing to uphold the UN Charter – to make effective everything that this institution was created for. Every point of the Peace Formula is rooted in the principles and purposes and norms of the UN Charter – in the rights it grants nations, and in the resolutions of the General Assembly that have already been supported by the majority of nations.

And we do not have different versions of the UN Charter for different parts of the world. We do not have regional “quasi-charters”. There is no separate UN Charter for BRICS or for the G7. There is no separate Russian-Iranian UN Charter, or no separate Chinese-Brazilian UN Charter. There is one UN Charter, which unites everyone – must unite everyone. The path to a just peace is the same – clear steps that everyone understands equally, and this is reflected in the Peace Formula. It is the fulfillment of the UN Charter. And we all know what needs to be done if we honestly look at the situation and truly want to stop Russia’s war. And most importantly – act. Together, of course. Of course, in unity. Without creating new and unnecessary divisions of the world into blocs or regional groups. Unity always works for peace.

We have to prepare the second Peace Summit to end the war. All together. And I invite all of you – all principled nations – to join us in this process. All who truly respect the UN Charter.

We invite China. We invite Brazil. I have already invited India. We are working with African nations, with all of Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, the Pacific region, North America. All are equally important for peace. All. Without exceptions. Just as the UN Charter must work without exceptions. This is the process that will lead us to peace. To a just peace. A real peace. A peace that will last. All of us already know how to achieve it. We have the Peace Formula. We have the UN Charter. And we have all the strength needed to make it happen.

What’s needed – is determination.

Thank you so much. 

Glory to Ukraine!

Reprinted from www.president.gov.ua. You can find the original here.