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Address by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
08 July 2022 11:12

Madam Chairwoman,

Dear excellencies, colleagues,

I’m grateful for the opportunity to address you today. I thank Indonesia and my dear counterpart Retno Marsudi for her kind invitation.

Before I begin, I would like to express my solidarity with all our Japanese friends following this shocking news of an assasination attempt on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Ukraine’s prayers are with his family and the Japanese people as we await news on his condition.

Back in the 1990s, the Group of Twenty was created to ensure global economic stability and development, prevent crises and stagnation, support sustainability and cooperation worldwide. Over the years, G20 has evolved into a key global platform tasked with addressing global challenges and threats.

This year's first and second sessions are closely linked. Because food and energy security in our globalised world can only be achieved through strengthening multilateralism and uniting efforts of the international community.

I am a strong supporter of multilateralism. Its core idea is truly noble: cooperation of states based on common norms, principles and values.

Ukraine has always supported this idea, because we believe that global challenges require global and collective responses. Our common responsibility is to overcome them and secure sustainable development.

But multilateralism lacks one thing. It lacks tools to protect itself from those who reject norms, principles, and values. Who disrespect other nations and the very idea of multilateralism. Who prefer to play with the common rules instead of playing by the common rules. Who prioritise brutal force over cooperation. Who pose ultimatums instead of seeking dialogue. We have such a country, Russia, present at this table today.

To be honest, I think that after everything Russia has done in the past half a year, it has no place at any international fora. A country engaged in a war of aggression against its neighbour and mass atrocity crimes against civilians should be offered only one seat: a seat at the trial of international justice.

In the course of its unprovoked aggressive war Russia has already killed 344 Ukrainian children. 640 more of them have been wounded. Many of you present here have your own kids. Can you imagine what an immense pain it is to lose your child in a war?

Yet, the minister of the country responsible for their deaths appears in front of you today to share his thoughts on how Russia views cooperation in our globalised world. Please, just remember about 344 Ukrainian families who have lost their children when listening to Russian lies.

Disastrous consequences of the Russian aggression are felt far beyond Ukraine. And most of the nations present at this table have already felt them.

Russian imperialism and aggression undermine the entire architecture of global security, economic stability and trade; they are triggering one of the most severe food and energy crises in recent history.

Ukraine is the world’s 5th largest exporter of wheat, 4th largest exporter of corn, and the largest exporter of sunflower oil. For decades, Ukraine has been playing an essential role in keeping the global food security system strong and sound. This is why Ukraine has always been called a global breadbasket. Well, today the global breadbasket has to be at war — attacked, bombed, and looted by Russian criminals.

The Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian ports has already shredded global chains of food supply and has a detrimental effect on global food security. Adding insult to injury, Russia steals Ukrainian grain and bombs Ukrainian granaries. On June 6th, Russian forces struck Ukraine’s second largest grain terminal complex at the port of Mykolaiv. 250 to 300 tons of grain which we had grown to feed the world and stored there have been destroyed, gone.

Make no mistake, Russia knew exactly where it fired its missiles. They target Ukrainian agriculture for a reason. This is a well-thought and cynical strategy aimed at damaging Ukraine and also blackmailing the world.

Russia is essentially playing hunger games with the world by keeping the naval blockade of Ukrainian ports with one hand and shifting the blame on Ukraine for it with the other hand. Russia sees dependence of other countries on any type of resources as weakness and an invitation to use this dependence as a leverage to Russia’s gain.

The World Food Program estimates that Russia’s war against Ukraine could push up to 49 million people into famine or famine-like conditions.

As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasised, Ukraine will do everything to maintain access to the world market despite the Russian blockade of our ports.

I call on all nations present here to reject Russian lies and attempts to shift the blame for the food crisis on Ukraine. Their accusations defy basic logic. How can we be interested in blocking our own food exports when they provide one of our main sources of revenues for the budget? We are interested in exporting our food products just as much as our consumers are interested in getting them as soon as possible.

Moscow also tries to falsely claim that the cause of the looming food crisis is international sanctions. This is simply a lie. There is not a single sanction imposed on Russia’s food exports. Russian aggression is the sole reason for the emerging crises.

The same logic applies to the energy sector. Unlike other world exporters of energy resources, Russia has never been a reliable partner, but instead used its energy resources as a tool of coercion to achieve political goals.

We can see this right now. Russia’s decision to significantly cut gas supplies to Europe is nothing but a political decision. The aim is clear – further increasing pressure on the global energy market and European countries.

The response to such actions should be to get rid of dependence on Russia’s energy commodities altogether. The world needs to accelerate the flow of energy from alternative suppliers, the development of alternative energy sources, and the increase in energy storage facilities.

This is a pragmatic side of the issue. The moral side is of course that the continued purchase of energy resources from Russia is equal to financing its war crimes in Ukraine. Russian oil and gas are full of Ukrainian blood.

Honourable Ministers, 

The objective of the G20 is not only to identify the most pressing global problems, but also to take bold and decisive actions to solve them.

Stopping Moscow’s aggressive colonialism is the global priority number one if we want to preserve stability, avert a deepening food and energy crisis, and protect multilateralism from those who try to destroy it. Russia attempts to present itself as a kind of alternative to the U.S. or the EU. They are not an alternative. They are a declining, increasingly isolated regime which can bring nothing but problems to other states it tries to engage.

I call on you to take urgent and necessary steps to make Russia abide by international law and respect basic global principles and norms. 

We have no right to allow Russia to further blackmail the world through high energy prices, hunger, and security threats.

Russia must end its war, stop its illegal blockade of the Ukrainian ports and withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine.

Thank you for your attention.

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