Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the High-Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council’s 49th session, via videoconference, March 1, 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I hoped to be able to attend the Human Rights Council in person after a two-year break.

However, I have been forced to address you via videoconference. The reason for this lies in the outrageous measures taken by the European Union, which has refused to respect one of the fundamental human rights – the right to freedom of movement. Members of the European Union chose the path of unilateral illegitimate sanctions and used them to avoid having to engage in direct honest dialogue, face to face. This is something that they are clearly afraid of.

The situation around the world is becoming increasingly complex. It is deteriorating right in front of our eyes. This is because the United States and its allies persist with their aggressive efforts to impose the so-called “rules-based order” on other members of the international community. How has this “order” affected human rights? Ukraine is a telling example in this regard.

It is the policy of the Washington-led “collective West” which is to blame for the fact that the Kiev regime has been at war with its own people since 2014. It has been at war with everyone who does not agree with the neo-Nazi “Maidan values,” with the criminal policy of the Ukrainian authorities, which have been systematically violating human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities, as well as the commitments Kiev has within the UN and the OSCE, and even the Constitution of their own country.

The radical nationalists and neo-Nazis who seized power in Kiev following a government coup, supported by the West, unleashed terror on the country. The very recollection of the tragedy in Odessa, on May 2, 2014, makes us shiver. Peaceful demonstrators were burnt alive in the trade union building. We know the criminals who perpetrated this horrendous act. In fact, they posed for cameras, but have yet to be punished.

The mass graves discovered in Donbass serve as irrefutable evidence of the criminal consequences from the massive shelling of civilian infrastructure. Forensics experts identified most victims as women and elderly people. Our Western colleagues have been ignoring the multiple facts relating to these outrageous violations of the most basic of human rights, the right to life. The attempts to draw the HRC’s attention to the violence and atrocities perpetrated over the past 8 years have been met with indifference.

For all these years, the Ukrainian regime has been carrying out an aggressive policy to get rid of everything Russian and promote forced assimilation. People who identify as Russian and would like to preserve their identity, language, and culture, are told in all clarity that they are not welcome in Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky referred to them as “species” and suggested that they go to Russia. He initiated a law on indigenous people, where there was no place for Russians who have been living on these lands for centuries. This is quite reminiscent of the laws Nazi Germany used to have. The Russian language is being purged from schools and universities, from the public space and even from everyday life. Quite frequently, people who speak their native language can pay for it not only with the loss of their jobs and health, but with their lives. Just imagine Ireland banning the English language, or Belgium the French language, or Italy the German language. This is unthinkable. Not only did the West fail to reject the frontal attack which has been launched against the Russian language in Ukraine, but some even encouraged it.

Any sign of dissent leads to harsh consequences. “Cleansing” the government of objectionable and disloyal employees has become a routine process, the main tool of which is the law on lustration adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. There are many other legislative acts enabling the regime's security forces to harshly suppress dissent and persecute the opposition. The authorities impose bans on TV channels and other media, and carry out reprisals against their own citizens, including members of parliament. Isn't this a violation of the freedom of speech and the right to express one's opinion?

Lies about the Second World War are being shamelessly inculcated. Hitler's local henchmen are proclaimed heroes, and actual anti-fascist heroes are forgotten. Monuments to those who defeated Nazism are being demolished. War criminals who fought in the ranks of the Third Reich are being glorified. The most recent step came in the form of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine sending a draft law about Ukraine's withdrawal from the CIS Agreement on Perpetuating the Memory of the Courage and Heroism of the Peoples in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War to the Verkhovna Rada on February 23. And so it was utterly blasphemous for Vladimir Zelensky to declare, on the very same day, that he honours the memory of his grandfather who fought in the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union and Europe from Nazism.

The Kiev regime even violated something as sensitive and personal as people’s spirituality. Religious discrimination is on the rise. The former authorities headed by President Poroshenko, with the support of Washington, effected a church schism and created what is now known as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Laws have been adopted against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Its churches are being seized, and millions of its parishioners and clergy are being persecuted. What is this other than a violation of religious freedom?

These large-scale, systematic attacks on rights and freedoms, as well as the consistent effort to inculcate neo-Nazism, are being carried out with the express consent of the United States, Canada, and the EU who arrogantly proclaim themselves exemplars of democracy. They have also brought unceremonious pressure to bear on international human rights mechanisms of the UN, the Council of Europe and the OSCE, which were unable to muster the courage to respond accordingly to the egregious lawlessness in Ukraine during all these years.

The West began to turn a blind eye to what was happening back in February 2014, when the radicals carried out an unconstitutional coup and tore up the agreement, backed by EU guarantees, with the then President of Ukraine. The putschists who came to power declared their intention of seeking alliance with the West and immediately launched an offensive against the Russian language, resolved to expel everything that is Russian from Crimea, and sent gunmen there. The eastern regions of Ukraine that opposed the coup were accused of terrorism, although they had not attacked anyone. On the contrary, punitive battalions were used against them; their cities were bombed from the air and fired at from artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. They destroyed civilian sites, schools, and hospitals. They killed civilians. An inhuman economic, transport and food blockade was imposed on Donbass. The Kiev regime got away with all of that. International organisations, at best, were limited to impotently calling on “both sides.”

Clearly, in these circumstances, the people of Crimea and Donbass simply had no other choice. In March 2014, the vast majority of Crimeans, acting entirely in accordance with international law, supported the peninsula becoming part of Russia. Exercising the right of peoples to self-determination that is enshrined in the UN Charter allowed them to defend their right to life and to freely use their native language, their traditions, their history and culture. Kiev retaliated by blocking the North Crimean Canal which is the main source of fresh water for Crimeans. Again, no one said a word in response, despite the five international conventions that enshrine the right to safe drinking water.

With regard to the residents of Donbass, after an agreement was reached in February 2015 on the UNSC-approved Minsk Package of Measures, they hoped that their voice would be heard and justice would prevail. They hoped that Kiev would start a dialogue with its citizens in Donetsk and Lugansk and begin to act on other obligations under the Minsk agreements, which, however, it has openly sabotaged with the direct support of the West while continuing its armed provocations.

Recently, the Ukrainian regime’s criminal actions went into overdrive. As a result, since mid-February alone, more than 100,000 refugees from Donbass have found shelter in Russia. We have collected a massive base of evidence of flagrant mass violations of human rights committed by the Kiev authorities. The website of the Permanent Mission of Russia in Geneva posted an online exhibition of documents and photographs exposing the atrocities of the Ukrainian military and neo-Nazi “volunteer” battalions. I urge everyone who cares about human rights to visit this exhibition in order to find out the truth that the Kiev regime, its sponsors and most of the Western media are doing their best to conceal.

In the face of gross violation of the rights of Russian and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine, an eight-year war against them that bears every sign of genocide, the stubborn refusal of the West to get the Ukrainian authorities to fall in line and the absence of any response from UN human rights bodies, the OSCE or the Council of Europe, Russia could not remain indifferent to the fate of Donbass and its 4 million people. President Vladimir Putin resolved to recognise the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics and, at the urging of the leaders of the DPR and LPR, to launch a special military operation to protect their residents in accordance with the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with these republics. The goal of our actions is to save lives by fulfilling our allied obligations, as well as to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine so that this never happens again. This is particularly relevant as that country continues to be drawn into NATO and the current regime – which has openly made territorial claims against the Russian Federation, threatened to use force and to obtain military nuclear capabilities – is flooded with attack weapons.

With regard to the recently launched campaign about the alleged violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, whose masterminds show total indifference and contempt for the violation of human rights, I would like to draw attention to the 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. This document was adopted by unanimous resolution of the UN General Assembly and states that the principle of respect for territorial integrity is applicable to “states that observe in their actions the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples (...) and, as a result, “possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour.” Clearly, the neo-Nazi government in Kiev continues to fail to meet that definition with regard to the peoples of Ukraine.

The United States and its allies, which are directly responsible for numerous violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and are guilty of crimes that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, once again apply double standards. The current Kiev regime is a vivid example of the fact that when you are a loyal vassal of the hegemon and participate with particular zeal in serving his policy of containing Russia, you can do anything you like. You can trample upon human rights and freedoms, kill people, and cultivate neo-Nazi traditions and practices. In exchange for your absolute fealty and obedience, the “civilised” West will turn a blind eye to everything. Moreover, the other day, the European Union, in a fit of Russophobic frenzy, decided to supply lethal weapons to Kiev. For us, the life of every Russian and Ukrainian, every resident of Donetsk and Lugansk, is as valuable as the life of a European or an American.

As President Vladimir Putin repeatedly stated, we have invariably been respectful of the Ukrainian people, their language and traditions. We have no intention of encroaching in any way on the interests of the citizens of Ukraine, with whom we are bound not only by a common history as well as civilisational, spiritual and cultural affinity, but also by bonds of blood and kinship.  Today, Russia is home to millions of people who were born in Ukraine. We consider them one of us. Together, we always have been, and always will be, so much stronger and more successful than apart.

The main thing is to stop the time-servers who have illegally seized power from betraying the core interests of the Ukrainian people by pursuing the policy, favoured by the West, of turning their country into an “anti-Russia,” a policy that has become their raison d’etre.  The true hysteria we are witnessing in NATO and the EU is further confirmation that creating an “anti-Russia” has been the goal of the United States and all the allies that Washington lined up behind it.

As you may know, negotiations between Russia’s representatives and Kiev’s delegation have got under way at Vladimir Zelensky’s request. I hope that the Ukrainian side is aware of the seriousness of the situation and its responsibility, and grasps the need to display independence and a real willingness to negotiate, and to avoid a repeat of the Minsk accords record.  

I would like to conclude my remarks by reminding you that human rights are a universal constant. They cannot be dependent on the self-serving ambitions of a narrow “select circle” seeking to rewrite the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, distort it to their liking, and replace the current consensus underlying all our work with their “rules.” The role of the UN Human Rights Council is to ensure adherence to our common values, not someone else’s narrow values; to promote mutually respectful discussion without any politicisation or double standards; and not to allow the human rights agenda to be used to interfere in internal matters.

We should be guided only by this approach as we strive to achieve justice on all issues affecting people’s vital interests, be it the institution of statelessness, which brings disgrace on Europe, the rising Nazi revival movement, or the West’s obsession with unlawful unilateral sanctions, whose impact on ordinary people no one tries to hide.   These illegal restrictions are no longer confined to financial and economic prohibitions. They are being extended to culture, sports, tourism, education, information, and generally all contacts between people.  The West has clearly lost control of itself and, in an attempt to take it out on Russia, has taken to destroying all the institutions and rules it has itself created, including the inviolability of property.  

The West’s arrogant philosophy based on a sense of its own superiority, exceptionalism, and licence must come to an end. The sovereign equality of states is a key principle of the UN Charter. It fully applies to the UNHRC’s work. Russia has always been open to equitable and mutually respectful discussions of all matters and is ready to seek a fair balance of interests.  

Statement by Sergey Lavrov at the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, 1 March 2022

Unofficial translation

Mr. President,

Dear colleagues,

I am honoured to address the Conference on Disarmament in person once again. I hoped that I could do it live while being in Geneva. However, it seemed impossible because the EU refused to comply with one of the fundamental human rights – the right to freedom of movement. Having chosen the path of unilateral illegitimate sanctions, the EU countries are trying to move away from an honest face-to-face dialogue, from direct contacts aimed at helping to find political solutions for pressing international problems.

The most acute of them – the tragedy of Ukraine – is the result of connivance of Western patrons to the criminal regime developed there after the bloody unconstitutional coup d’état in 2014 carried out contrary to the safeguards of Germany, Poland and France under the agreement on the settlement of internal Ukrainian crisis. Already then the attitude of the putschists to European values became evident. Today the dangers that the Zelensky’s regime pose for neighboring countries and international security in general have increased substantially after the authorities settled in Kiev started dangerous games related to plans to acquire their own nuclear weapons.

The irresponsible statements made on this subject are not just bravado. Ukraine still has soviet nuclear technologies and means of delivery of such weapons. We can’t fail to respond to this real danger. I can assure you: Russia as a responsible member of the international community committed to its WMD non-proliferation obligations is taking all necessary measures to prevent emergence of nuclear weapons and related technologies in Ukraine. We expect that everyone is aware of the need to solve this problem.

Today, there is a clear need to cooperate intensively in order to increase predictability and prevent new spirals of an arms race. In the current circumstances, it is necessary to refuse to take any actions aimed at dismantling the arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament architecture. Of high importance is to refrain from dangerous steps in the field of military build-up that could be regarded as a violation of the principle of equal and indivisible security. 

Unfortunately, this very fundamental principle is being disregarded by NATO member-states that redouble efforts to deter Russia. Suffice to mention pulling the Kiev regime into the Alliance’s orbit with providing it with lethal weapons as well as conducting provocative military exercises and other activities in the proximity of the Russian borders.

So far Western colleagues failed to demonstrate any willingness to provide Russia with legally binding long-term security guarantees. We mean the rejection of further NATO expansion, including the revocation of the "Bucharest formula," which ensures Ukraine and Georgia NATO’s membership. Western countries must refrain from establishing military facilities on the territories of former USSR republics that are not NATO members, including the use of their infrastructure for any military activities. And finally, NATO’s military capabilities, including strike ones, and infrastructure, must be brought back to the levels of 1997 at a time when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed. These goals are of crucial importance for us.

In addition, I would like again to call on the US, its allies and clients to strictly comply with their international obligations not to strengthen their own security at the expense of others. It would certainly improve the military and political environment in the Euro-Atlantic region, pave the way forward on the entire combination of arms control issues, including possible work on any new arrangements.

Dear colleagues,

The UN disarmament machinery has a decisive role to play in paving ways to get the arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation system out of the crisis. The Conference on Disarmament is its key element. Results of its activities directly impact on the security of all mankind.

Among provisions from the Conference’s agenda, I would like to single out a legally binding instrument to prevent an arms race in outer space. The document is to strengthen the international legal regime in the area of space security. As you know, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits the placement of any types of WMD in outer space. It is clear that this norm does not extend to other types of weapons. Certain countries took advantage of this loophole to start weaponization of outer space. Doctrinal documents have been adopted, and plans for the deployment of weapons systems, including strike weapons, are being drawn up and transferred into the implementation stage. The threat of a new arms race and the transformation of outer space into an area of armed conflict are gaining real shape. All of this is fraught with dire consequences for global stability.

Russia and China submitted to the Conference a draft Treaty on Prevention of Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects. Not an acceptable option is to delay the launching of such negotiations. Attempts to replace a legally binding instrument in this area with some half-measures in the form of "rules of responsible behaviour" in outer space are to be considered, in our view, as counter-productive.

We are convinced that negotiations on the prevention of an arms race in outer space would create a favourable context for progress towards nuclear disarmament, another agenda item to which Russia is devoting the greatest attention.

On our initiative, without any conditions the U.S.-Russian New START Treaty was extended for five years in February 2021. By agreement between the presidents of the U.S. and Russia, a comprehensive dialogue on strategic stability was initiated. Its key task is to lay the foundations for future arms control and risk reduction measures. We are ready to work together on a new "security equation" that takes into account all the factors of strategic stability in their interrelationship. 

It is unacceptable to us that, contrary to the fundamental provisions of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a number of European countries still have U.S. nuclear weapons on their territories. The flawed practice of "nuclear sharing" involving non-nuclear NATO countries persists and provides a framework for testing actual scenarios for the use of nuclear weapons against Russia. It is high time for U.S. nuclear weapons to be returned home of their possessor and for the associated infrastructure in Europe to be completely dismantled.

We have always believed and continue to believe that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. This principle is reiterated in the Joint Statement of the Presidents of the U.S. and Russia of 16 June 2021 and in the Joint Statement of the Heads of State of China and Russia of 28 June 2021. It is important that at the initiative and with the most active participation of Russia, a Joint Statement of the leaders of the five Nuclear-Weapon States on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms race was adopted on 3 January 2022.

Our country unilaterally undertook not to be the first to deploy systems previously banned by the INF Treaty in regions where no similar American-made means would be deployed in order to ensure predictability and restraint in the missile sphere in the context of the termination of the INF Treaty. We call on the U.S. and its allies to follow our example. I stress in particular that Russia has not possessed and does not possess intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-launched missiles. To argue otherwise would be to create a deliberately false picture and to cover up the actions of those who are really to blame for the destruction of the INF Treaty.

Russia remains open to initiatives for multilateral negotiation formats on the prevention of an arms race and the strengthening of strategic stability. We believe that such ideas should be implemented on the basis of consensus, taking into account the legitimate interests and concerns of all potential participants.

We expect that this year will see the holding of the repeatedly postponed Tenth NPT Review Conference. This Treaty is a key element of international security and strategic stability system. It is essential that the Conference be held in a constructive business-like atmosphere and that at its conclusion the participating States reaffirm their readiness to comply strictly with the commitments they have undertaken. Russia is open to co-operation with all countries for the sake of a successful forum.

We are concerned with the controversial venture of Australia, the UK and the US to create a closed partnership AUKUS. We believe that AUKUS affects negatively the nuclear non-proliferation regime, provokes tensions and creates prerequisites for a new round of the arms race, and not only in the Asia-Pacific region.

We look forward to progress with the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). In this regard, the position of the United States is disappointing. The current U.S. administration has been in office for over a year, but Washington's previous approach, set out in the 2018 nuclear doctrine stating the refusal to ratify the CTBT, has not yet been revised.

Efforts to restore the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to resolve the situation around the Iranian nuclear program continue. We expect them to be successful. There is no reasonable alternative to the JCPOA. Commitments under the "nuclear deal", reinforced by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, must be strictly implemented without any reservations. We are compelled to state that the current situation is a clear evidence of how dearly Washington's inflexibility costs global security. A policy based on pressure and blackmail is absolutely hopeless.

Support is needed for efforts to establish a Middle East zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction (WMDFZ), as envisaged by the resolution of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference. On the positive side, we have already convened two sessions of the Conference in accordance with the decision adopted in December 2018 by the UN General Assembly. Russia actively participated in the work of these fora as an observer. We look forward to Israel joining this process, as well as the United States, a co-sponsor of the 1995 WMDFZ resolution.

We advocate strengthening the regime of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons (BTWC). We are determined to work constructively with the aim of effectively holding a BTWC Review Conference. We call on international partners to support Russian initiatives aimed at reinforcing institutional foundations of the Convention.

The state of affairs in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is deeply troubling. This is a direct result of the destructive policy promoted by the US and its allies in line with the flawed and harmful concept of "rule-based order". Western countries have actually "privatized" this technical international structure and submitted it to their geopolitical ambitions. They openly use the Secretariat of the Organization to exert political pressure on "unwanted" governments, against which unsubstantiated accusations are generated. It is in the interest of the international community to do everything possible to prevent the OPCW from turning into a tool for certain states to achieve their reprehensible mercenary goals.

Dear colleagues,

We presume that the Conference is capable of reversing the disastrous trends in the field of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, making a significant contribution to strengthening international security and stability. The Russian initiative to develop an international convention to combat acts of chemical and biological terrorism also addresses this problem. Strengthening the international legal framework for combating WMD terrorism serves the interests of all states.

I am sure that, given the political will, the participants of the Conference will be able to overcome the existing divergences and reach mutually acceptable solutions that pave the way to the resumption of negotiations. We expect the Six Presidents of the 2022 session of the Conference to make its contribution.

Thank you.