UK Foreign Minister Lammy’s Full Address at the High-Level UN Security Council Meeting on Ukraine

Well, thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Secretary General, for your briefing on the grim realities of this war. President Zelenskyy, the UK commends you not only for standing up for your people, but for standing up for democracy. Seeing you in Kyiv a few weeks ago with Secretary Blinken, I saw ordinary people from all walks of life—the soldiers and civilians, the firefighters and first responders, the mothers and fathers—working together in defense of freedom. Your bravery and courage are an inspiration to us all.

But, Mr. President, I also want to speak directly to the Kremlin and its representative here today, and to Vladimir Putin. Russia sits on this council, but its actions tear up the UN Charter. Russia sits on this council, but over the weekend, we saw it put forward amendments designed to wreck the UN's future. Russia claims to stand for the Global South, but it runs roughshod over international law.

Vladimir Putin, when you fire missiles into Ukrainian hospitals, we know who you are. When you send mercenaries into African countries, we know who you are. When you murder opponents in European cities, we know who you are. Your invasion is in your own interest—yours alone—to expand your mafia state into a mafia empire. An empire built on corruption, robbing people as well as Ukraine. An empire built on crushing dissent, silencing courageous opponents like Navalny. An empire built on lies, spreading disinformation at home and abroad to sow disorder.

Mr. President, I speak not only as a Briton, as a Londoner, and as a Foreign Secretary, but I say to the Russian representative on his phone as I speak that I stand here also as a Black man whose ancestors were taken in chains from Africa at the barrel of a gun to be enslaved, whose ancestors rose up and fought in a great rebellion of the enslaved. I know imperialism when I see it, and I will call it out for what it is.

In this week, as I'm here talking to other partners around the world about our shared futures and the future of the UN, Russia is trying to return us to a world of the past. A world of imperialism. A world of redrawing borders by force. A world without the UN Charter. We cannot allow this to happen. Ukraine's fight matters to all of us. The UK will remain Ukraine's staunchest supporter.

Because, Mr. President, these are the stakes: if we let an imperialist redraw borders by force, those will not be the last borders to be redrawn. If we let an imperialist deny a nation its path, Ukraine will not be the last state to be subjected. Maduro will take encouragement and go for Guyana next.

So let me be clear: we want peace in Ukraine. We want it for the Ukrainian people. As President Zelenskyy has said, it must be a peace that will last. The fundamental principles that underpin the United Nations—the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, as enshrined in this UN Charter, the Charter of the United Nations, must prevail. Putin's Russia wants to unravel it. We want to uphold it, and we will.

As President Zelenskyy said, the UN Charter will prevail. Slava Ukraini. Thank you."