44 years ago, on December 14th, the international community reached a historical decision on the definition of aggression by approving the UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX).
Enactment of the Kampala amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court last July brought a new meaning to this consensus. The extension of the ICC jurisdiction to the crime of aggression provides the international community with an effective tool for preventing crimes against peace, strengthening security and international legal order.
The progress of humankind in combating aggression has been hampered for five consecutive years by the aggressive acts of the Russian Federation which with an outrageous insolence and extraordinary cynicism continues to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, flagrantly violating norms and principles of international law.
Russian armed aggression against Ukraine has resulted in occupation of the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Over 10 thousand people were killed, 24 thousand wounded and 300 missed. Total number of victims has reached 4.4 million, 3.4 million of civilians are in need of humanitarian assistance, near 1.5 million are internally displaced persons.
Yet another act of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine, which took place on November 25, 2018 in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait as a result of the armed attack against the Ukrainian Naval Forces, as well as other aggressive actions of the Russian Federation prove its blatant disregard for the UN Charter.
Paying tribute to all victims of the armed aggression, we call on the international community to make full use of all available tools in the fight against this heinous crime wherever it takes place.
We demand the Russian Federation to stop its aggression against Ukraine, to comply with the relevant UN General Assembly resolutions, including 68/262 «Territorial integrity of Ukraine», to withdraw Russian regular armed forces, illegal armed formations controlled, commanded and financed by the Russian Federation, its weapons and military equipment from the territory of Ukraine, to release all prisoners and illegally detained citizens of Ukraine, to restore territorial integrity and respect sovereignty of the Ukrainian State.