President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States. The Candidate Countries North Macedonia* Montenegro^*, Albania^*, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Georgia, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino align themselves with this statement.

We welcome the decision to reconvene this Emergency Special Session.

President,

Before delivering my statement, allow me to say how appalled we are by today’s attacks by Russia against Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine. Such indiscriminate attacks on civilians are war crimes and we are committed to holding the perpetrators to account.

President,

The past week, the European Union has facilitated a resolution to condemn Russia’s organization of the illegal so-called “referenda” in regions within Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders as well as its subsequent attempted illegal annexation of Ukraine’s regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

We want to sincerely thank all the delegations that engaged with us on this text. During a transparent and inclusive process, we have made every effort to include the proposals we received from other delegations. We believe the result is a concise and focused text that all of us should be able to support. We therefore strongly encourage all UN Member States to co-sponsor and vote in favour of the resolution and in this respect, let me say that we are grateful that the Assembly has decided to follow its long established tradition voting in a transparent manner.

President, dear colleagues,

This debate concerns every single one of us. Today’s discussion is about upholding the Charter of the United Nations and the core principles of our organisation. It is about respecting the most basic principles of international law.

By wilfully undermining the rules-based international order and blatantly and repeatedly violating Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia is putting global peace and security at risk. If we do not condemn the actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine today, then we end up condoning similar blatant attacks on any and all of our countries tomorrow.

We therefore firmly reject and unequivocally condemn the attempted illegal annexation by Russia of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Acquisition of territory through the use of force is a matter of concern for all of us. Protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all UN Member States, regardless of their size and power, is our collective duty and a core principle of the UN Charter.

We do not and will never recognise the illegal so-called 'referenda' that Russia has engineered as a pretext for this further violation of Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, nor their falsified and illegal results. We will never recognise this attempted illegal annexation. These decisions are null and void and cannot produce legal effects under international law. Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk are Ukraine. We call on all States and international organisations to unequivocally reject this attempted illegal annexation.

The title of the resolution we are discussing today is ‘Territorial Integrity of Ukraine: Defending the Principles of the Charter of the United Nations’. That is the only thing we are voting on. I strongly encourage all Member States to stand up for the Charter.

I thank you.