Ukrainian Foreign Ministry calls on partners to double down on support for Ukraine

The ministry said this in a statement posted on its website on Friday, February 24, Ukrinform reports.

“February 24 marks one year since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, which turned into the largest conventional war in Europe since the World War II. The only reason for the unprovoked aggression of the Russian Federation was the neo-imperial ambitions and expansionism of the Russian leadership within the framework of efforts to revive the ‘Russian empire’ by seizing the lands of neighboring countries,” the ministry said.

It stressed that with its criminal actions, Russia grossly violated the UN Charter, the fundamental norms and principles of international law, a number of bilateral and multilateral treaties.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the Kremlin expected that it would take a few days to capture Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people would meet the Russian invaders with bread and salt. Instead, thanks to the Ukrainian people’s commitment to the principles of freedom, justice and self-dignity, Ukraine not only withstood and stopped the Russian invasion, but also has successfully held it off for many months, carrying out counter-offensives. As a result, about half of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian troops in 2022 were liberated.

The ministry also noted that for 365 days of the large-scale war waged against Ukraine, the Russian Federation as an aggressor state, a terrorist state and a violator of international law brought in Ukraine death and sufferings, using groundless accusations.

The statement says that the Russian regime’s ongoing war of aggression has destroyed the lives of millions of Ukrainians, razing their native homes to the ground and forcing them to seek safety and refuge in other regions of Ukraine and beyond.

“Due to constant barbaric rocket and artillery shelling and the destruction of Ukrainian cities and villages, objects of civil, primarily energy and transport, infrastructure, residential and maternity buildings, kindergartens and schools, stadiums and hospitals, theaters and museums, industrial facilities, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have problems with electricity, water and heat supply, while the economy of Ukraine suffered a huge blow, losing more than 30% of its annual GDP. Such actions are a gross violation of international humanitarian law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War of 1949,” the statement reads.

The ministry also mentioned the seizure of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and the ongoing occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. In doing so, Russia deliberately violated the existing standards of nuclear and radiation safety, putting the world on the brink of a new nuclear disaster.

“The activities of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, the holding of fictitious referendums on their accession to the Russian Federation and the attempt to annex them, destruction of Ukrainian culture and language, looting of museum funds, forcible deportation of children, forced passportization are nothing but the genocide of the Ukrainian people,” the ministry said.

“At this crucial stage of the war, we call on our international partners to redouble their comprehensive and critically needed support for Ukraine in order to speed up the Ukrainian victory. Vitally important is the further consolidation of efforts around the Peace Formula of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the implementation of which will ensure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and prevent the recurrence of similar aggression in the future,” it added.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry recalled that the indispensable prerequisites for the installation of peace must be complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, restoration of its internationally recognized borders, payment of reparations for all the damage caused by Russia’s armed aggression, and bringing those who gave criminal orders and those who executed them to international criminal responsibility.