Mr. Chairman,
Dear Ambassadors,
Dear colleagues,

First of all I would like to thank the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship for this
opportunity to meet the OSCE Permanent Council at this grave moment for
Ukraine as well as for the entire OSCE region.
Just several months ago I attended the meeting of the Permanent Council in my
previous capacity as Ukraine’s CiO Special Representative on Conflicts. It
reminds me of how our common efforts resulted in a number of practical
achievements on the ground and an adoption in Kyiv of two ministerial statements
on the Transdniestrian settlement process and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
resolution.
I could not imagine at that time that the purpose of my next visit to the OSCE
Permanent Council meeting would be the discussion of the occupation by one of
the OSCE states of a part of my own country’s territory that has a deeply
destabilizing effect on the security of the OSCE region and of the whole world.
Over the recent weeks we are witnessing the most flagrant violation of
international law in the OSCE region since the times of World War II. After two
weeks of blatant occupation an integral part of Ukraine has been forcibly annexed
by a state that previously committed itself to guarantee independence, sovereignty
and territorial integrity of my country in accordance with the Budapest
Memorandum, as well as contrary to the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act,
bilateral and multilateral agreements.
According to the definitions given in the Resolution of the UN General Assembly
№ 3314 (ХХІХ) of 14 December 1974, actions undertaken by the Russian
Federation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are to be qualified as an act of
aggression against Ukraine.
The strong support for and solidarity with Ukraine regarding this issue,
expressed by the overwhelming majority of states and respected international
institutions, indicate that the broad international community shares this view.
Discussions of the Russian military intervention in Ukraine held within the United
Nations, the Council of Europe and the OSCE clearly demonstrated how isolated
Russia is on this issue. The mixture of concocted justifications, half-truths,
deliberate distortions and naked lies offered by the Russian side failed to impress
the wide international community.
The case in point here is the persistent reluctance of the Russian Federation to join
the consensus at this very body to establish a monitoring mission to Ukraine,
which we invited. The respective draft resolution has been torpedoed by the
Russian delegation three times already.
These Russian actions have all the signs of a deliberate tactic to undermine at all
costs the efforts of the OSCE community to send independent civilian monitors to
Ukraine to make an objective assessment of the situation on the ground. In light of
all this the only logical explanation would be is that the Russian Federation tries to
avoid exposure of its actions in Ukraine and its lies about the situation in my
country.
Under the circumstances there is no exaggeration in stating that Russia effectively
took hostage the entire OSCE community. It trampled on the basic premise of this
Organization to work for the benefit of everyone. Russia forces upon the OSCE an
approach that can be characterized only as satisfying and appeasing of just one,
namely the Russian Federation.
For the Organization it is a defining moment. It is time to decide if the OSCE can
stand the test or is doomed to slip into the irrelevance.
We very much hope that the OSCE can rise up to the challenge and continue to be
an organization whose opinion and actions matter. On our side we are open to an
all encompassing and comprehensive cooperation with all OSCE institutions.
Only yesterday we welcomed the ODIHR OSCE election observation mission in
Ukraine that would monitor the upcoming early presidential elections. The mission
has our full support and will get necessary assistance and facilitation from the
Ukrainian authorities. The High Commissioner of National Minorities is also
welcome to visit Ukraine at any time. We also highly value the advice and the
opinion of the Representative on Freedom of the Media. We welcome continuation
of the work of the military observers under the Vienna Document who are now
present in Ukraine.
We are convinced that the OSCE still has a lot to offer. We just have to make good
use of the available resources and tools.
In light of all of the said above I encourage all the OSCE participating states to
approach the problem that we all now face with full understanding of the
responsibility that lies on all our shoulders. Because the current crisis around
Ukraine’s Crimea is not just our internal problem, it is neither an exclusively
bilateral Ukrainian-Russian problem, it is a stress test of the very foundations of
the existing structure of international relations.
There is still time to correct the wrong that has been done already in relation to my
country and we call on everyone to seize this opportunity to start doing right before
it is too late.

Thank you for your attention.

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