Melnyk urges UN to ban Russia from peacekeeping missions over sexual violence crimes

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Melnyk said this while speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

“What a shame for this inglorious Russian army and the so-called law enforcement agencies, that are nothing else but a gang of rapists,” the Ukrainian diplomat said.

According to Melnyk, such crimes are not new to Ukraine, as they have been systematically documented since Russia’s occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014. He noted that these allegations have now been independently verified and officially documented by the United Nations.

Quoting the UN Secretary-General’s report, Melnyk said it confirmed 310 cases of conflict-related sexual violence committed by Russian military and security structures, including rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks, and beatings targeting the genitals. The documented victims included 280 men, 26 women, and four girls. The alleged perpetrators included Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service, the Russian Armed Forces, and the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Addressing the Russian delegation, Melnyk suggested that Russia should consider leaving the United Nations if it rejects UN findings regarding Moscow’s alleged war crimes.

“If Russia feels uncomfortable with all the decisions of the General Assembly demanding the unconditional withdrawal of its troops, or, better to say, its war criminals, from Ukrainian soil, if Russia rejects independent reports by relevant UN bodies exposing Moscow’s barbaric policies, maybe it is time to say goodbye and get out of the UN,” he said.

Melnyk argued that the Russian Federation was never properly admitted to the UN. He added: “I do not think that anyone in this chamber will be shedding tears when Russia finally slams the door and leaves. Every single day, the Russian representative is spitting in all our faces with constant lies, while we too politely pretend that it is just falling rain.”

The diplomat also recalled that Russian armed forces have appeared for three consecutive years in the UN Secretary-General’s report on grave violations against children in armed conflict.

“Now Russia is listed under both flagship Security Council resolutions – CAC (children and armed conflict) and conflict-related sexual violence,” Melnyk said.

He stressed that the decision should not remain “just a symbolic exercise.” According to him, any military force blacklisted by the UN Secretary-General for conflict-related sexual violence should neither participate in nor represent UN operations.

“Russian personnel shall be banned from UN peacekeeping and police missions,” he said.

Melnyk also briefed the Security Council on recent Russian attacks against Ukrainian cities, the strike on a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and rejected what he described as Russian disinformation regarding the occupied city of Starobilsk.

Responding to renewed Russian claims that the killings in Bucha were staged, Melnyk said there was no other alleged war crime in modern history that had been documented more extensively.

“And this will be the judgement for the political leadership in Russia, because Bucha is a shame that not just your government but the Russian people will bear for decades and for centuries,” he said, addressing the Russian representatives.

As reported by Ukrinform, the UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting on Monday at Ukraine’s request following the latest large-scale Russian attack on the country.