Thank you, Mr Chair.
\n\nOn 29 October, a Russian drone struck a crowded platform at Dnipro’s main railway station as a commuter train prepared to depart, killing at least 14 people. On the same day, Russian strikes killed two children in Chernihiv and at least three people in Kremenchuk. The United Kingdom condemns these attacks. We also unequivocally condemn Russia’s double-tap strike on 2 November against civilians gathering for humanitarian aid in Komyshuvakha, which killed at least 33 people, including police officers and rescue workers. Once again, it is Ukrainian civilians who are paying the price for Russia’s strike campaign.
\n\nMr Chair, each week Russia brings presentations to this Forum and offers them as fact. Too often, the material presented does not support the claims made.
\n\nOn 23 September, Russia told this Forum that experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross had verified the complete absence of military targets at the Wildberries warehouses in the Leningrad region. That is a significant claim to attribute to an independent humanitarian organisation. Yet the claim was made by a Russian Foreign Ministry official and reported by Russian state media. We are not aware of any statement from the ICRC itself confirming it. A Russian official’s account of what the ICRC concluded is not a finding of the ICRC. We request that the Russian delegation provide the ICRC’s own confirmation of the conclusion it attributed to it.
\n\nThe same pattern appeared on 7 October, when Russia cited its own Foreign Intelligence Service to support its claims about European Union policy. The policy, which related to recruitment, had been explicitly denied by the EU, which rejected it one month earlier. This did not stop Russia from repeating the falsehood. When one part of the Russian Government is cited as the source for a claim made by another, that claim has not been corroborated, only repeated.
\n\nRussia’s use of photographs as proof raises the same fundamental difficulty. On 30 September, the delegation used images of mines, munitions and launchers to support allegations that they had been used against civilians. However, Russia supplied no incident-specific dates, recovery locations, provenance, chain of custody, or independently verifiable information connecting any depicted item to a particular attack. Some slides have even been presented as ‘evidence of crimes’, but assertion is not authentication. As the International Court of Justice has held, ‘claims against a State involving charges of exceptional gravity must be proved by evidence that is fully conclusive’. Such photographs cannot simply be treated as proof of the alleged offence.
\n\nLast week’s presentation carried the title ‘the escalation of the terrorist war by the Armed Forces of Ukraine’. We may discuss the language used in that title at a later date. The presentation contained 12 slides of photographs of damaged homes, shops, a church and a substation. Every caption blamed Ukraine, but not a single slide explained how that culpability was established. Most of the images were credited to the archive of Mr Miroshnik, the same Russian government official behind the unsupported ICRC claim. Many of the photographs were undated, and those that were dated go back as far as April. Not a single photograph was from October. Some slides gave no location, no source and no date at all.
\n\nMr Chair, whatever their intent, claims of this kind will not weaken international support for Ukraine. On 28 October, the United Kingdom announced over £10 billion of additional economic and military support for Ukraine, our largest package to date. It includes £500 million for Ukraine’s air defences this winter, on top of our commitment of £3 billion a year for as long as it takes. In total, the United Kingdom has now committed £35 billion to Ukraine, including £16.5 billion in military support. We also welcome the United States’ approval on 30 October of the potential sale of 500 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, funded entirely by Ukraine’s partners and allies. When delivered, they will save Ukrainian civilian lives.
\n\nRussia’s attacks and unsupported narratives are not persuading Ukraine’s partners to step back. They are having the opposite effect. The United Kingdom will continue to stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to ask Russia to show this Forum the evidence behind its claims.
\n\nThank you, Mr Chair.
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