Ukraine’s Poroshenko at UNGA Urges Justice,

Development & Security to be Included in SDGs

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, addressing the seminal global theme of Sustainable Development Goals from the point of view of a head of state of a country that is defending itself against foreign invasion, called on the international community to include concepts of justice, development and security in the 2030 Agenda.

Speaking at the general debate at the 71st UN General Assembly session today, Poroshenko warned UN member-states that appeasing foreign aggression and terrorists will not bring peace, stability and security to the world. On the other hand, he continued, violators – both “perpetrators and masterminds” – of the UN Charter and global order must be held accountable for their crimes.

“There is a critical need to make our Organization capable of addressing effectively acts of aggression and to bring those responsible to justice. Otherwise, no nation, no UN Member State can enjoy sustainable security and development,” Poroshenko said, echoing the words of Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, expressed yesterday.

Speaking about one of the worst years in recent memory, Poroshenko questioned what makes evil so strong and good so weak nowadays? His tacit reply was acquiescence to injustice.

“But never since the end of the Cold War have international norms and principles been unilaterally defied on such a scale and with such brutality. The Charter of the United Nations – the document underpinning our responsibility for maintaining the world order – has never been questioned. And never has a Security Council member been a major violator of the UN Charter while being at the same time the instigator of, and active participant in, a conflict as well as its mediator. As a result, global instability is no longer a subject of academic debates,” he said. The unspoken instigator of the conflict is Russia.

Poroshenko offered the 193 General Assembly members two choices.

“Either we recognize the problem and spare no efforts to address it on the basis of shared values and principles, or deceive ourselves by the illusion of stability, turn a blind eye to obvious facts and leave the future of the United Nations – this unique platform for common action – at the mercy of one player who blatantly violates the UN Charter.”

However, he continued, if the global community makes the unfortunate mistake of selecting the latter alternative, the world will “face severe disappointment.”

“The price for this short-sightedness has long been known – it is human lives. In the last century, humanity paid an enormous price following two world wars – about 70 million lives. Isn’t it enough?” he said.

He said Ukraine today is a testing ground for a new hybrid form of warfare, which through global ambivalence is spreading around the world. Consequently, he continued, “It is time for the Security Council to go resolutely and effectively into this issue.”

With the UN being on the threshold of electing a new secretary-general, Poroshenko said he hoped he or she “would ready to use decisively all tools at his or her disposal, including those provided under Article 99 of the UN Charter, in case of a threat to peace and security.”

Turning to Russia’s war with Ukraine, Poroshenko said since 2014, his country “has learned from its own tragic experience what foreign-grown terrorism feels like.”

He pointed out that the terrorist component of the undeclared hybrid war is evident.

“Dramatically, it has become a daily routine in the occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. For over two years of this tragedy, Ukraine has received extensive and irrefutable evidence of direct involvement of Russia, its state agencies and officials in financing, sponsorship, and coordination of terrorist groups which have committed countless crimes against my compatriots.

“The shocking reality is that there is a roughly 38,000-strong illegal military force in Donbas and its large part is regulars and mercenaries from Russia. This force is armed to the teeth by Russia,” Ukraine’s president said.

Accusing Moscow of being fully intent on deceiving the international community about its crime, Poroshenko said that Russia has been denying its military presence in Ukraine at every conceivable forum, including the UN Security Council.

“Today, in response to thousands of available photos, videos, satellite images, eyewitness and other evidence of the Russian military presence in Donbas, Russia only goes over and over again with a cynical recitation ‘We are not there.’

“Russia used to say the same about Crimea. ‘We are not there.’ And then a sham referendum was conducted at the Russian gunpoints. And a few days ago, a contradictory statement by Russian president that Crimea, can you imagine, was annexed in accordance with the UN Charter. Do we really refer to the same Charter?” he said.

In its third year, Poroshenko said, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine “continues bringing pain and suffering to the Ukrainian people” with 2,430 people killed.

“The total death toll of this war in the heart of Europe inflicted on us has amounted to 2,500 military and 7,500 civilian. Altogether 10,000 people. Hundreds of hostages remain in unlawful captivity in Donbas and in Russia,” he continued.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has also touched the lives of Ukrainian children with the taking of hostages who were later seen on videotape being interrogated for allegedly conspiring to commit subversive operations. He urged UNICEF to investigate this occurrence.

Poroshenko emphasized that the Minsk accords have failed to result in peace because Russia continues to violate its provisions. However, he emphasized that Ukraine is fully committed to implementing the tenets of the ceasefire.

He demanded that Russia “set the captives free, stop shooting, withdraw weapons, let the OSCE carry out its mandate and watch over the Ukrainian-Russian border without hindrance, withdraw Russian weaponry as well as regular and irregular military units.”

Occupied Crimea is also enduring Russia’s brutality, Poroshenko said.

“The latest stroke in this picture is the ban by the Russian occupation authorities on the activities of the Mejlis, the self-governing body of the Crimean Tatar people. Add to this the arbitrary detention of Ilmi Umerov, Deputy Head of the Mejlis, in a psychiatric facility for 20 days. In fact, the outrageous practice of punitive psychiatry, which had been widely used by the Soviet repressive machinery, is now back in service for Russia.

“We urge Russia to grant unimpeded access of international human rights organizations to both Crimea and Donbas, and implement the decision of UNESCO Executive Board on establishing monitoring in Crimea at the institutional level,” he said.

Poroshenko urged the UN to protect the rights of the Crimean Tatars while appealing to the member states not to recognize what he called the illegitimate elections in the occupied Ukrainian peninsula.

“If you do recognize them, this will play into the hands of the aggressor and encourage further repressions,” he warned.

The global community also faces the likely possibility that Russia will deploy nuclear weapons in Crimea, which “would destroy the global system of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and brutally violate Ukraine’s non-nuclear status.”

Despite the hardships that Ukraine is facing, Poroshenko assured his listeners that Ukraine “is fully committed to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by the UN General Assembly last year.”

Turning to a quotation devised 70 years ago by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, one of the founding fathers of the United Nations, at the Westminster College, where he also spoke of an iron curtain descending across Europe, Poroshenko insisted that world leaders must not close their eyes to violations of the UN Charter in order to remove contemporary difficulties and dangers.

“They will not be removed by mere waiting to see what happens; nor will they be removed by a policy of appeasement,” he said.

Poroshenko said "the two giant marauders – war and tyranny,” must be confronted in order to be overcome.