Dmytro Kuleba: Russia’s Hybrid Aggression against Ukraine Undermines Architecture of Global Security

On 23 February, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba took part in the high-level segment of the Conference on Disarmament 2021.

He assured of Ukraine’s readiness to assist in resuming the effective work of the conference, in particular, to take an active part in the development of the Treaty Banning the Production of Fissile Material for Nuclear Weapons or Other Nuclear Explosive Devices. The Minister expressed Ukraine’s readiness to take part in the creation of a universal document that would provide effective security guarantees for non-nuclear states parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The Foreign Minister spoke about Russia’s neglect of a number of international agreements on arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation.

“Russia’s hybrid aggression against Ukraine undermines a global security architecture built on such fundamental international instruments as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects,” he said.

The Minister drew the attention of the conference participants to the threatening and illegal build-up of Russia’s nuclear potential in the temporarily occupied Crimea, which undermines the nuclear-weapon-free status of the Ukrainian peninsula.

Kuleba called on those present to consider the temporary occupation of the Crimean peninsula and Russia’s unleashing of the armed conflict in certain districts of Donbas as a threat of its military expansion into the east and south of the European continent.

Natalia Tolub