I welcome the adoption on December 16, 2021 by the United Nations General Assembly of the revised and strengthened resolution "Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine".

The Ukrainian diplomacy has consistently strengthened UNGA resolutions on Crimea with new provisions that record gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law on the peninsula by Russia as an occupying Power.

This year we managed to include in the text Russia's responsibility for respecting the rights of the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Crimea, as well as the demand to repeal the sentences in absentia against Crimean Tatars and their leaders.

The document calls on UN member states to engage constructively in concerted efforts within the International Crimea Platform to improve the human rights situation in Crimea.

The resolution calls on Russia to stop arbitrary detentions and arrests of Crimean citizens, and to release Ukrainian citizens unlawfully arrested or imprisoned, including Emir-Usein Kuku, Halyna Dovhopola, Server Mustafayev, Vladyslav Yesypenko, Nariman Dzhelyal and many others.

It is also emphasized that the multiple exercises of Russian armed forces held in Crimea entail considerable long-term negative environmental consequences for the region, impacting civilians’ enjoyment of their human rights.

The resolution calls on Russia to end the policy of forcible change in the demographic composition of Crimea, condemns the conducting by the Russian Federation of an All-Russian population census, which is declared invalid in Crimea.

The resolution emphasizes Russia's exclusive responsibility as an occupying power in providing Crimean residents with fresh drinking water.

The updated title of this year's resolution directly reflects Russia's illegal actions regarding the temporary occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula.

I am sincerely grateful to all UN member states who co-sponsored and voted in favor of this important document for Ukraine.

The document became the sixth consecutive UN General Assembly resolution on the human rights situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the eleventh in the context of the international response to Russia's attempt to illegally annex the Ukrainian peninsula.

We will continue to make every effort to de-occupy the Ukrainian peninsula and bring Russia to international legal responsibility.