Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia*, Montenegro^* and Albania^*, and the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

As reaffirmed by the EU’s endorsement of the International Crimea Platform Declaration adopted on 23 August 2021, in Kyiv, the EU does not and will not recognise the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation. The European Union remains steadfast in its commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.

Furthermore, the European Union and its Member States reaffirm the universal and unified character of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out.

Russia's actions are in blatant breach of international law and key principles of international order. They are a violation of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of any State. Moreover, they violate Russia's international and bilateral commitments and the principles of regional European security and stability, enshrined in the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris - foundations of the OSCE, as well as of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. As stated in the resolution 68/262, which was supported by the vast majority of the UN General Assembly, the so-called referendum organised by Russia on the peninsula in March 2014 has no legal validity, as it was a breach of Ukraine’s constitution and thus cannot form a basis for alteration of the status of Crimea and Sevastopol. The European Union calls on all UN Member States to remain steadfast in their policy of non-recognition of Russia’s illegal annexation, in line with the UN General Assembly Resolution 68/262.

Since the illegal annexation, the militarisation of the peninsula by Russia has had a negative impact on the security situation in the Black Sea region as a whole. The building of the Kerch Strait bridge without Ukraine’s consent and the subsequent arbitrary inspection regime at the Kerch Strait limits the navigation to and from Ukrainian ports, with negative economic consequences for Ukraine's economy and ports in the Azov Sea as well as to third countries. We are seriously concerned about transfers by the Russian Federation of highly destabilizing weapons systems and military personnel to the peninsula since March 2014. Multiple military exercises of Russian armed forces have been held in Crimea, which undermine regional security and entail considerable long-term negative environmental consequences in the region. As documented in the reports by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Russian citizenship and conscription in the armed forces of the Russian Federation have been imposed on Crimean residents in violation of international humanitarian law. Russian legislative elections have been illegally held in the illegally annexed Crimea and a population census conducted in an attempt to legitimise the illegal annexation of Crimea and to further undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders. For the same reason, the European Union does not recognise the Russian presidential decree, entered into force on 20 March 2021, adding most of Crimea and Sevastopol to the list of border territories of the Russian Federation in which non-Russian citizens are prevented from owning land.

As the EU has repeatedly called for, and as stated in the previous UN General Assembly resolutions on this topic, it is crucial that Russia withdraws its military forces from Crimea and ends its illegal annexation of Crimea without delay. We call upon all Member States to cooperate with the United Nations to encourage and support efforts to that end and to refrain from any dealings with the Russian Federation regarding Crimea that are inconsistent with this aim, or could be seen as an implicit recognition of this violation of international law. In this regard we urge the Russian Federation to ensure safe, secure, unconditional and unimpeded access of all international monitoring mechanisms, including the OSCE SMM, to the illegally annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The European Union remains committed to fully implement its policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, which is based on the obligation not to recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach of international law, including through sanctions.

* The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.