Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia*, Montenegro^* and Albania^*, as well as Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

Mr. President,

The European Union recalls its unwavering support to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and independence of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders including its territorial waters.

On 18 March 2020, it will be 6 years since the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation.  This illegal annexation remains a direct challenge to international security, with grave implications for the international legal order that protects the territorial integrity, unity and sovereignty of all States.  In line with the UN General Assembly resolutions 68/262 and 74/168, the EU reconfirms its condemnation of this violation of international law and continues to implement its consistent non-recognition policy of the illegal annexation, including through restrictive measures, together with its transatlantic partners.

This issue is not only a serious bilateral or European concern, but a global one. By its aggressive actions against Ukraine, Russia has violated several international agreements and other instruments – notably the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, but also the Paris Charter (1990), Commonwealth of Independent States Founding Agreement (1991), Budapest Memorandum (1994), the bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership (1997) and the Azov Treaty (2003) – to name a few.

The EU will continue to support Ukraine's resilience, including improving its ability to counter hybrid threats. The EU reaffirms resolute support for Ukraine's reform efforts, especially when it comes to the implementation of commitments linked to the Association Agreement. The EU has since 2014 committed together with financial institutions over EUR 15 billion in grants and loans to cooperation with Ukraine. EU Member States are also significantly involved on a bilateral basis. The Ukraine Reform Conference in Vilnius on 7 July will be an important moment to demonstrate the achievements Ukraine has made and strengthen the reforms process further.

The EU continues to condemn all Russia's breaches of international law. As a strong supporter of effective multilateralism, we work to ensure the respect of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in all international organizations – the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and of course the United Nations, in line with the General Assembly resolutions 68/262 and 74/168.

We welcome Ukraine’s efforts to continue to seek justice using international legal instruments and courts, including in the European Court of Human Rights, in arbitration courts, the International Court of Justice etc. We underline in this regard the importance of respect for judicial decisions and their timely implementation.

The ongoing Russian militarization of the Crimean peninsula continues to negatively impact the security situation in the Black Sea region and beyond. We continue to call on Russia to ensure unhindered and free passage to and from the Sea of Azov in accordance with international law. Russia's unjustified use of force on 25 November 2018 near the Kerch Strait, the construction of the Kerch bridge without Ukraine’s consent, and the opening of its railway section in December 2019 have been violations of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, which we have repeatedly condemned. We call on Russia to immediately release four Ukrainian fishermen and their boat illegally detained in the Sea of Azov on 15 February.

Since the illegal annexation by the Russian Federation, the human rights situation in the Crimean peninsula has severely deteriorated. Residents of the peninsula face systematic restrictions of human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of expression, religion or belief and association and the right to peaceful assembly. In particular, the human rights of the Crimean Tatars have been targeted.

In accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 74/168 adopted last December, it is crucial that the regional and international human rights monitoring mechanisms as well as the non-governmental human rights organisations have unimpeded access to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Journalists, human rights defenders and defence lawyers should be able to work independently and without undue interference and intimidation. We welcome the work of Ukrainian human rights organisations and the Crimean prosecutor who, temporarily from mainland Ukraine, records human rights violations and abuses. All human rights violations must be investigated and perpetrators brought to justice.

The EU welcomes the release of 35 detained Ukrainians including Oleh Sentsov, Edem Bekirov and captured Ukrainian sailors. It was a testimony to the work and determination of those, including civil society, human rights defenders, and legal experts, who have worked tirelessly for this outcome. The EU, however, deplores that Russia released the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors only on 7 September 2019, thus implementing the ruling of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea with an undue delay.  We keep calling for the immediate release of all those Ukrainian citizens who have been illegally detained by Russia and sentenced in breach of international law.

We also expect Russia to take measures to improve the environmental situation in Crimea, which has considerably worsened.

Regarding the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the EU remains firm in its call on all sides to swiftly and fully implement the Minsk agreements and honour their commitments in full in order to achieve a sustainable political solution to the conflict. The EU fully supports the efforts of the OSCE, the Normandy format and the Trilateral Contact Group.

In particular, the EU welcomes the N4 Summit in Paris last December and the prisoners exchange that followed. We thank Ukraine for its initiatives and bold actions that have brought positive steps such as prisoners exchange and disengagement of forces.

The EU urges the sides to fully and comprehensively implement the ceasefire. It is now of utmost importance that the Minsk Agreements and the Paris Summit conclusions be fully implemented.

In this regard we deplore the military escalation and offensive attempts near Zolote, as reported on Tuesday, as they go against the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and show a lack of commitment to the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the measures agreed at the Normandy Summit. We urge the sides to fully respect their reiterated commitments; in particular, we call on Russia to exert its considerable influence over the armed formations it backs to ensure that the ceasefire be fully implemented.

We also call on Russia to immediately stop fuelling the conflict by providing financial and military support to the aforementioned armed formations, and we remain deeply concerned about the presence of Russian military equipment and personnel in areas currently not under the control of the Government of Ukraine. The EU condemns the continuous deterioration of the respect for human rights in the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, too. The duration of the EU’s economic sanctions against Russia is linked to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements.

We remain concerned about the continued restrictions of the OSCE SMM’s freedom of movement, particularly in non-government-controlled areas of southern Donetsk region and near the border with the Russian Federation. We once again deplore the targeting of SMM assets, including SMM UAVs, by means of signal interference and small arms fire. The SMM must have safe, secure, unconditional and unimpeded access to the entire territory of Ukraine in line with its mandate. This includes the illegally annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and along the Ukraine-Russia state border, to which the SMM is systematically denied access by Russia-backed armed formations. Civilians are the ones paying the heaviest price when the sides do not adhere to the ceasefire, when they do not withdraw heavy weapons and when they do not remove mines, but instead are laying new ones.

We welcome the inclusive approach by Ukraine towards the population of the conflict-affected areas of east and southeast of Ukraine. We welcome that civilian crossing over the Stanytsia Luhanska Bridge has been made easier since the opening of the new section of the bridge on 20 November 2019. Still, there are exceedingly long queues at the entry exit checkpoints. These queues expose civilians to the risk of small-arms fire, shelling and hazards posed by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) and older persons often face hardships related to inclement weather and long waiting times. It is therefore vital to improve the process at the checkpoints in the interest of the thousands of people who are crossing them every day. We reiterate our call for the opening of new crossing points, based primarily on humanitarian criteria. We further welcome the release of 200 conflict-related detainees on 29 December. ICRC should be granted full and unconditional access to all detained persons.

After almost six years of conflict, the deteriorating security situation in eastern Ukraine has an increasing impact on the civilian population, in particular the persons in the most vulnerable situations living in the Non-Government Controlled Areas and along both sides of the contact line, where people are under continuous threat of shelling. We share a profound concern for their sufferings. Adequate social benefits and pensions to all Internally Displaced Persons, regardless of their place of residence and in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution should be provided. Protection of the supply of water, energy and other utilities across the Line of Contact and mitigation of environmental risk are key to avoid worsening of the situation.

As a result of the conflict 3,4 million Ukrainians are still in need of humanitarian assistance, as outlined in the recently published Humanitarian response plan 2020. We call on the sides to guarantee unhindered and sustained access for humanitarian actors, including UNHCR, to all people in need. The decreasing level of humanitarian funding is reducing the ability to deliver humanitarian assistance. The European Union, together with its 27 Member States, is the biggest donor of humanitarian aid to Ukraine with hundreds of millions EUR since the beginning of the conflict and will continue to support humanitarian organisations in their important work to alleviate the suffering of affected populations, particularly along the contact line.

* The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.