Remarks by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a high-level side event on gross human rights abuses stemming from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield delivers a speech at the UN side event on Ukraine
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
US Representative to the United Nations
New-York, New-York
February 22, 2023
AS DELIVERED
I would like to thank Ukraine and the other co-sponsors for bringing us together for this sobering but vitally important side event.
A year ago, Russia launched its unprovoked, illegal, all-out invasion of Ukraine. On the same day, President Putin made a strange speech to justify his war of aggression. Putin told the world he would invade Ukraine to protect Ukrainians from “bloody crimes.”
Of course, this was a total distortion of reality. It is his own troops who have committed atrocities against the Ukrainian people. And we just heard about the tragic circumstances of prisoners of war and their families.
As we made clear this week, the US believes that Russian forces have committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine. crimes against humanity. This is not a decision we make lightly. But in this case, the evidence is overwhelming.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine, established by the Human Rights Council in March last year, and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine have documented a wide range of atrocities and other human rights abuses committed by Russian forces.
Summary Executions. Arbitrary Arrests. Torture, rape and other forms of gender-based violence and sexual violence. And we know that women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups are most vulnerable to these attacks.
Last November I traveled to Ukraine and met with victims of Russian war crimes. Women tortured by Russian forces. Elderly people thrown from their homes. Kids who wanted nothing more than to go back to school and see their friends. It was heartbreaking.
As a mother and grandmother, I am deeply disturbed by the horrors being done to Ukrainian children. Credible reports suggest that Russian officials orchestrated the transfer, relocation, re-education, adoption or foster care of thousands of children. Some of these children were orphaned during this war. And some were already living in facilities for serious health needs.
In many cases, parents sent children to “summer camps” for their safety, but were then denied contact and reunion with their children. In other cases, the parents refused to send their children to the Russian “camps” and the Russian occupation authorities took them in anyway.
And let’s be clear: this is not a spin-off operation. We have evidence that President Putin and the Kremlin are actively engaged in these efforts to deny and suppress Ukraine’s identity, history and culture.
We must ask Russia to end this inhumane campaign; return children to their parents and legal guardians; providing registration lists of removed children; and allow independent observers access to facilities within Russian-controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and within Russia itself.
The United States also condemns credible reports of assaults on people with disabilities. Russia’s war of aggression has exacerbated the significant attitudinal, physical and environmental barriers faced by persons with disabilities. It is all the more difficult for these Ukrainians to access services – including accessible housing, safe evacuation options and health services. And people with disabilities are at disproportionate risk of being neglected and abandoned, in some cases by their own families.
Therefore, as the international community rebuilds after this terrible war, we must ensure that people with disabilities are at the forefront of decision-making and policy-making at all levels.
Colleagues, I would like to emphasize the need to renew the mandate of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine at the forthcoming HRC meeting in Geneva. Since Minister Blinken first established last March that Russian forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine – and since the Commission found reasonable grounds to conclude the same – the evidence of atrocities and other abuses has continued to accumulate. The Commission must be able to continue its critical work and I urge the HRC to renew the mandate. There must be accountability for Russia’s atrocities.
And mark my words: There will be accountability for Russia’s atrocities. But right now what the Ukrainian people need most is peace. As President Biden said during his visit to Kiev this week, “President Putin chose this war. Every day that the war goes on is his choice.”
Our message to President Putin is: end this war. Complete your campaign of brutality. End the suffering your armed forces have inflicted on Ukraine and the world.
But until that day comes, we must all stand by Ukraine. We must all stand behind the UN Charter. And we must all be held accountable for unscrupulous human rights violations.
Thanks very much.
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