PRESS RELEASE : We are proud to support Ukraine’s right to self-defence for as long as it takes – UK statement at the UN Security Council [December 2023]

Thank you, Mr. President and thank you to Mr. Ebo and Ms. Wright for their briefings.

Colleagues, this is the seventh time this year Russia has called for a debate in the Security Council meeting on the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. They have once again invited a Western briefer to support them.

It’s obvious what they’re trying to do.

These debates are clear evidence of a campaign to try to influence public opinion in the West, to undermine political support for Ukraine. A campaign driven by the Kremlin, to serve the Kremlin’s interest alone.

This campaign is intended to help Russia to subjugate Ukraine and annex its territory, without Ukraine having the means to defend itself.

But it is manifestly not in the interest of anyone else around this table, to allow Russia, through violence, to violate and undermine the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that underpin the international order and that provides stability to our world.

That is why we’re proud to support Ukraine’s right to self-defence, and that is why we will continue to supply Ukraine with the military assistance it needs for as long as it takes.

This is all the more important when Russia is itself sourcing weapons from Iran and DPRK in violation of Security Council resolutions and using them to target civilians and Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure.

Colleagues, the Russian Government is not only sending enormous volumes of weapons to Ukraine. It is also sacrificing the lives of more and more of its own citizens to prolong an invasion that is based on lies.

A conveyor belt of Russian mothers and fathers, sons and daughters being sent to their deaths.

Since Russia’s invasion began, over 300 thousand Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, many times more than in the ten years of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. President Putin now plans to conscript another 170 thousand, as cannon fodder for his government’s war.

It is hard to see how it is in the interests of the Russian people that the Russian Government prolongs its aggression. It is certainly not in the interests of this Council that Russia succeeds.

Let us not forget that for Russia, this is a war of choice. For Ukraine, it is a war of survival.

We must therefore continue to give Ukraine all the support it needs to defend its sovereign territory. We must demonstrate our resolve to protect and uphold the UN Charter. And we must ensure that Ukraine secures a just and lasting peace.

I thank you.