(Due to the continuing financial liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations, the final summary of this meeting will be available at a later time.)
As civilians continue to pay the high cost of war, concerted diplomatic efforts towards a full ceasefire between Ukraine and the Russian Federation must resume now, the Security Council heard today from one of the United Nations' senior political officers.
Since the start of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at least 16,126 civilians, including 796 children, have been killed in Ukraine, Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, said. Most recently, he said, on 15 June, the Russian Federation launched yet another massive, deadly strike on Ukraine, hitting Kyiv and several regions of Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones. He also highlighted damage to historic sites such as an eleventh-century Dormition Cathedral, a Ukrainian spiritual and cultural landmark.
He expressed concern about the impact of the war on civilians in territories of Ukraine under the temporary occupation of the Russian Federation - including in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol - as well as on civilians in the Russian Federation. Highlighting several incidents, he noted that on 18 June, 17 people, including children, were reportedly injured in a Ukrainian drone strike - the largest such strike targeting Moscow and surrounding areas since the start of the war.
More Short-Range, First-Person View Drones Fuelling Death Toll
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), last month at least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured in Ukraine. "We reiterate our firm condemnation of all such attacks," he said.
Noting the forthcoming annual Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, Poland, he added: "Recovery will only be sustainable if it is anchored in a broader vision for peace." He called for immediate de-escalation to enable meaningful, inclusive negotiations for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in Ukraine.
"The choices made [in the Council] can mean lives saved or lives lost," Edem Wosornu, Director of the Crisis Response Division in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said. She called on that organ to ensure that all parties comply with international human rights law obligations. The second imperative is to provide timely, flexible funding. Without it, she stressed that "the consequences fall on the most vulnerable and least able to move out of harm's way".
Since the Council's last briefing on Ukraine, "more families have been forced to endure the all-too-familiar pattern of this war - attacks, destruction, loss, another night without safety," she added. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has recorded more civilians killed and injured by short-range drones in May 2026 than in any month since February 2022, she added. Cheap, first-person-view drones are causing widespread civilian harm along the front line, and they are equipped with cameras "that let the operators see exactly what they are striking".
Also expressing concern over reported civilian harm in the Russian Federation, she said that the absence of a UN monitoring presence there "does not diminish the seriousness of these reports". She, too, highlighted the 15 June strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv which left more than 100,000 households without power, hit rescuers responding to initial attacks and damaged a World Heritage Site monastery.
Moscow Using War Crimes to Erase Ukraine's Rich History
"Russia wants to erase the rich history of the Ukrainian nation," said Latvia's representative, noting that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has verified damage to 536 cultural sites, including 154 religious sites, 41 museums and 22 libraries. Questioning how a country which associates itself with Orthodox Christianity could deliberately target one of the oldest and most sacred Orthodox monasteries in Kyiv, he suggested that its symbolic importance and age - predating Moscow - may explain the attack. For centuries, the Russian Federation failed to control Ukraine's Orthodox church through infiltration, corruption, lawfare and disinformation, now resorting to bombing. "The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage in wartime constitutes a war crime and may amount to crimes against humanity," he said.
Similarly, Denmark's delegate described the Russian Federation's attacks as aimed at destroying a sovereign and independent State and erasing its memory, history and identity. "But well into its fifth year since the full-scale invasion, this war has failed to achieve any of its goals," she said, stressing that international humanitarian law provides special protection to cultural and religious sites.
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