Dmytro Kuleba Outlines Ukraine’s Three Priorities for New Session of UN General Assembly

On the opening day of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba outlined Ukraine’s three priorities for the 76th session of the UN General Assembly:

• Countering Russian aggression and restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, de-occupying Donbas, and Crimea
• Improving the living conditions of Ukrainians in the territories affected by the Russian aggression in Donbas
• Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences

“The key priority of our foreign policy, enshrined in the Foreign Policy Strategy, remains the fight against Russian aggression and the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform, which consolidates the international efforts to de-occupy Crimea, took place in Kyiv on August 23. We expect the UN to provide full support for its activity as achieving the ultimate goal of the Crimea Platform – the return of Crimea – will restore respect for the UN Charter and stop gross violations of international law,” Kuleba said, the Ministry’s press service informs.

Kuleba pointed out Ukraine’s intention to convene the debates on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories during this session of the UN General Assembly.

Ukraine’s second priority for the 76th session of the UN General Assembly will be to improve the living conditions of Ukrainians in the territories affected by Russian aggression in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions: “The UN has the knowledge, experience, and technology to implement projects to restore areas affected by armed conflict. We are interested in more active UN efforts in the region, in particular in the areas of humanitarian demining, and development of medical, educational, housing, and utilities infrastructure.”

Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences was determined the third priority: “All countries must gain equal access to vaccines, have sufficient resources to effectively counter the pandemic and restore the economy. Ukraine is ready for effective cooperation with the UN in order to strengthen the Ukrainian health care system and socio-economic protection of the most vulnerable categories of citizens,” Kuleba summed up.

He noted that Ukraine, as one of the founding member states of the United Nations, advocated strengthening the UN’s role in solving urgent problems of international relations:

“We are ready to make joint efforts together with the current presidency of the General Assembly to resolve armed conflicts, restore the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, and combat climate change.”

Natalia Tolub