Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary-General,

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I have the honor to read a statement on behalf of the following member states of the ITU: Ukraine, 27 EU Member States, Albania, Andorra, Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and United States of America, and further request that the statement be entered into the record of the meeting.

We thank the Secretary General for his oral update on the implementation of the 2022 ITU Council Resolution 1408 on “Assistance and support to Ukraine for rebuilding their telecommunication sector”. We look forward to the release of the first written report assessing the impact of the war in Ukraine in the field of telecommunications, and providing proposals for effective assistance, at the earliest opportunity and in any event no later than the end of the year. 

The very first line of the ITU’s constitution recognizes the importance of telecommunications for peace, and in order to foster the economic and social development of all Member States. The support for Ukraine provided by the ITU and its Member States is uniquely valuable for the rebuilding of Ukraine’s telecommunication sector. We are proud that our Union has stepped up to support a member state in urgent need.  

We welcome the establishment of a special Task Force at the level of the General Secretariat, and of a Special Fund in Trust, in order to provide assistance and support to rebuild Ukraine’s telecommunication infrastructure and to provide the necessary support and technical capacity building. We are grateful to ITU member states for the contributions they have made to support these efforts, including the projects and pledges announced on the occasion of the ITU Partner2Connect High-Level Digital Development Dialogues held at the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Kigali in June 2022.

We call on Member states and the Union not to lose this momentum, but to continue to provide assistance and financial contributions to Ukraine for rebuilding its telecommunication sector and to support the use of telecommunications/ICTs for recovery and sustainable development. In addition, we call on the ITU to ensure adequate financial and human resources mobilization within its budget in order to support this effort, in line with Council Resolution 1408.

As an important member of the UN family, the ITU cannot ignore the fact that it is Russia which is responsible for the war in Ukraine. As recognized by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution (A/RES/ES-11/1) of 2 March 2022 on Aggression Against Ukraine, Russia’s unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine violates international law, including the UN Charter, and shows flagrant disregard for human suffering.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion on 24^th February, 2022, Ukraine has suffered attacks on critical telecommunication infrastructure, failure of telecoms services and outages of the mobile networks. Russia’s actions have had a devastating impact over the operation of telecommunication facilities and services in Ukraine and on the exercise of Ukraine’s sovereign right to regulate telecommunications within its internationally recognized territory. These unjustified actions stand in clear contradiction to the ITU’s mission to promote digital connectivity for sustainable development worldwide and fails to respect the fundamental principles enshrined in the ITU Constitution. Russia has lost its status as a credible partner for ITU activities and cannot claim to promote its values.

We firmly reject and unequivocally condemn the illegal attempted annexation by Russia of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. These actions, based on sham “referenda” carried out by the Russian-installed officials in temporarily seized Ukrainian territories, are a further blatant violation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and of international law. The results of these illegal “votes” are null and void and these areas will never be recognized by the international community as anything but a part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. We call on the ITU to refrain from any actions or publications that might be interpreted as recognizing or endorsing any alteration of the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, and to support Ukraine in exercising its sovereign right to regulate telecommunication within those borders.

The supporters of this statement stand firmly and unwaveringly in solidarity with Ukraine. We strongly condemn the Russian Federation's violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and deplore the suffering and loss of life that it has caused. We reiterate the call of the UN General Assembly Resolution of 2 March and urge Russia to immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine and to immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. And in doing so we urge Russia to respect, in full, the obligations which arise from ITU membership.

I thank you.

Stand with Ukraine