"The shelling of the city of Mariupol suffered the second deadliest single incident on the soil of Ukraine since the downing of MH17 in July 2014. Despite this the Security Council failed to unanimously condemn this deadly act because Russia put protecting the militants above condemning the perpetrators", spoke Raimonda Murmokaite, permanent representative of the Republic of Lithuania to the UN, at an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council.
"How can a bunch of illegal militants without external trade ties, without income or budget, continue capturing new territories, afford expensive modern tanks, amass hundreds of armoured combat vehicles, artillery systems, and rocket launchers? How can hundreds of Russian soldiers be dying on Ukraine's soil if they are not even there?" asked Ambassador Murmokaite.
The Permanent Representative repeatedly urged Russia to stop providing support for separatists. "The onus is on Russia to put an end to this senseless war by ending support to illegal armed groups operating in the east of Ukraine, accepting international monitoring of the Ukrainian-Russian border, withdrawing its troops and weaponry from eastern Ukraine, reaffirming its respect for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity", underlined the ambassador of Lithuania.
She also addressed the fact that in spite of all ceasefire violations and military attacks, the Ukrainian leadership firmly maintains that the Minks Agreements are the only way forward towards peace. The ambassador of Lithuania repeatedly urged all the partied to the conflict, Russia included, to implement without delay the Minsk Agreements in full, without arbitrary revisions and manipulations. Murmokaite underlined that it was necessary to ensure the possibility for international observers to have full and unconditional access to the whole territory of Ukraine, including Crimea, as well as the release of all the illegally detained persons.
Jeffrey Feltman, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who spoke at the meeting condemned the attack against the civilians in Mariupol and expressed regret that the urge of the UN Secretary-General to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine and to ensure security of the civilians remains unheard. The UN representative noted that the shelling of the city of Mariupol when the rockets deliberately targeted civilian population, constituted a violation of international humanitarian law. On weekend the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission provided evidence that the rockets that shelled Mariupol originated from the territory controlled by the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic".
