EU Statement – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Interactive dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine

Chair,

The EU is grateful to the Commission of Inquiry for its briefing and its efforts to investigate all violations and abuses of international law stemming from the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

We reiterate our resolute condemnation of Russia’s illegal, unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression, which constitutes a manifest violation of international law, including the UN Charter. We also recall our unwavering support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders as well as its inherent right of self-defence as guaranteed by article 51 of the UN Charter. The EU remains firmly committed to ensuring that Russia is held fully accountable for its unprovoked war of aggression against its neighbouring country.

In your latest update to the Human Rights Council, you stated there is continuous evidence that Russian armed forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine, and that you are undertaking in-depth investigations regarding unlawful attacks with explosive weapons, attacks harming civilians, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and attacks on energy infrastructure. These investigations may uncover whether crimes against humanity have been committed.  In June, Russian armed forces and its affiliated armed groups were also listed in the Secretary-General report on Children and Armed Conflict as parties carrying out grave violations against children. We share your deep concern at the scale and gravity of violations that have been committed in Ukraine by Russian armed forces. In particular, we deplore your findings that attacks harming civilians and medical institutions, which have protected status, continue to take place.

We support your continued investigations into the unlawful transfers and deportations of unaccompanied minors by Russian authorities, for which the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova. The EU condemns in the strongest terms Russia’s forcible transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children, within Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia or to Belarus and Russia, and calls on Russia and Belarus to immediately ensure their safe return.

Could the Commission elaborate on how you are collaborating with other national and international accountability mechanisms, including the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression, UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, the International Criminal Court and the Council of Europe’s Register of Damage, with a view to ensuring maximum effectiveness of all efforts to hold Russia to account?