Betsa At UN: Ukraine Will Fight Until Territorial Integrity Is Restored Within Recognized Borders
“Let me make sure that everyone in this room hears this: Ukraine does not intend to surrender. Ukraine does not intend to retreat. We will defend our land. We will defend our freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter,” Betsa stressed.
She added that Ukraine would continue fighting until Russia withdrew its troops, Ukraine's territorial integrity was restored within its internationally recognized borders, and a just peace was achieved.
Betsa said Russia had chosen a strategy of massive strikes and a constant ballistic threat, deliberately targeting children and civilians while destroying civilian infrastructure and threatening to use nuclear weapons.
According to Betsa, Russia's leadership believes that terror can intimidate Ukraine and force its population to surrender.
At the same time, she called on the international community to increase pressure on Russia to compel it to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire.
The deputy foreign minister stressed that in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russia seeks not only to establish control but also to erase Ukrainian identity, language and culture.
“Russia's goal is not only to control the territory, but also to change it, to erase Ukrainian identity, to erase the Ukrainian language, to erase Ukrainian culture, and to sever ties between the temporarily occupied territories and the rest of Ukraine,” Betsa said.
According to her, international monitoring and investigative mechanisms continue to document serious violations of international human rights law and international human rights standards in the occupied territories.
Read also: Ukraine at UN urges non-recognition of illegal Russian elections in occupied territories
She cited arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, politically motivated persecution and restrictions on fundamental freedoms among the violations.
“Representatives of Indigenous peoples, religious communities, journalists, civil society activists and ordinary citizens continue to face pressure and persecution because of their self-identification as Ukrainians,” the deputy foreign minister stressed.
As previously reported by Ukrinform, the UN General Assembly convened on Tuesday for a debate on the situation in Ukraine's territories temporarily occupied by Russia.
Photo: Video screenshot
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