943 days ago, Russia launched its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.

943 days of suffering. 943 days during which women were raped in Bucha, 943 days of people being tortured in eastern Ukraine. 943 days of children being deported. And, as we have heard here today, there is no denying this.

The Russian Ambassador here didn’t even say it wasn’t true. He said it’s better for the children.

It has been estimated that more than 20,000 children have been deported.

Imagine these were your children. And that you are told here in the Security Council that this is in the best interests of your child, to be stolen from you, as a mother or a father.

I had the chance to speak to one of the very few teenage girls who could be returned to Ukraine. She told me, through tears: “Please promise me one thing. You won’t stop. You won’t stay silent until all the other girls, all the other boys, the little children, have been returned.”

And this is the promise we made. We as European neighbours. We as Germans.

My country was responsible for the worst crimes on the European continent. Today, we are lucky to live in peace again. My generation was able to live in peace, in a reunified country in the middle of Europe, because others were there for us. Other European friends and partners.

Today, some are asking us if it would maybe help to end the war if we didn’t support Ukraine’s self-defence. If we just ignored what’s happening.

We cannot do that because my country’s pledge is that we will always stand up for the principles of the United Nations.

And we won’t rest until these children come back to their families.

And to the Russian Federation’s Ambassador, who always leaves after he has spoken here: you can fool yourself.

The strongest man in your country can hide behind teenage girls who he kidnapped.

But you cannot fool the world.

We don’t have to go through all the 943 days of atrocities to see this.

We can all just remember what happened here in New York on Sunday. Russia wanted to prevent us from achieving a real breakthrough for the UN. But it didn’t succeed when a vast majority of states rallied around the values of the Charter.

And then we read what the Russian Deputy Ambassador wrote on Twitter. The truth is that the majority from the, and I quote, “jungle”, was not capable of taking the right decision.

This is how Putin’s Russia speaks about other countries these days: “the jungle”.

And this is how they speak about Ukraine: “a beauty” that has to be raped.

And this is how Putin’s soldiers, Putin’s army, behaves.

Every day, for 943 days.

Lately, we’ve seen heavy drone attacks and missiles directly targeting power plants.

Two thirds of electricity and heating in Ukraine is destroyed. Even though we try to protect it with air defence. And Russia’s actions are not a coincidence, but because winter is coming again.

At minus 15 degrees, when electricity doesn’t work, when heating doesn’t work, when all water is frozen. This is a crime against humanity. People freezing to death.

And this is why, again, I would like to call on all our friends around the world. We can totally understand that some of you think: maybe if there is no weapons support for Ukraine anymore, maybe if we just neutrally call on all sides, things will be better.

But the truth is if there is no air defence left around the remaining electricity hubs, there is no electricity in Ukraine anymore. Then everything would be destroyed.

President Zelensky invited the Russian President to the negotiating table in the summer. He offered dialogue, and Vladimir Putin responded with new levels of aggression. In June, Ukraine invited Russia to a second international peace conference. Putin responded by bombing a children’s hospital in Kyiv.

And this is why we believe we have to send further air defence to Ukraine. To protect children’s hospitals.

And this is why we are very grateful that an increasing number of our partners around the world are thinking about how to end this war. We need this. We need an end to this war.

But this cannot mean that we stand by and watch while there is no end to this war. While Putin hasn’t taken a seat at the negotiating table. To just stand by and watch Russia destroy the remaining half of Ukraine.

When we speak about peace, we believe it must be a just and lasting peace.

Speaking about peace means Ukraine must be sure that the end of the fighting does not mean another round of preparations in Russia. Neither for Ukraine, nor Moldova, nor Poland, as we’ve heard from our EU colleague.

Speaking about peace, just and lasting peace, means that Ukraine’s existence as a free and independent country must be guaranteed. It means security guarantees.

This is hard. Every day, people are dying.

But, Excellencies, on Sunday we showed what we can achieve if we join forces. We showed that those who want to destroy our Charter will not succeed if we stand together and rally around it.

Let’s rally around the Charter also for Ukraine.

In the same spirit, for a just and lasting peace, for Ukraine, for Europe and the whole world.