We the Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) remain resolved to stand with the Ukrainian people and government who heroically resist Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military aggression and war of choice against their sovereign nation. This unprovoked and unjustified attack is causing enormous suffering and a tragic loss of life, including through the increasingly indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians in schools, homes, and hospitals.

We are united in our determination to hold President Putin and his regime accountable for this unjustified and unprovoked war that has already isolated Russia in the world. The world should join together in calling on President Putin and his regime to immediately stop its ongoing assault against Ukraine and withdraw its military forces. We stand in solidarity with those who are bravely opposing the invasion of Ukraine.

We urge Russia to ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access to victims of its assault in Ukraine, and to allow safe passage for civilians wishing to leave. We call for, and commit to provide, humanitarian, medical and financial support to refugees from Ukraine.

Since President Putin launched the Russian Federation’s invasion on February 24, our countries have imposed expansive restrictive measures that have severely compromised Russia’s economy and financial system, as evidenced by the massive market reactions. We have collectively isolated key Russian banks from the global financial system; blunted the Central Bank of Russia´s ability to utilise its foreign reserves; imposed sweeping export bans and controls that cut Russia off from our advanced technologies; and targeted the architects of this war, that is Russian President Vladimir Putin and his accomplices, as well as the Lukashenko regime in Belarus.

In addition to announced plans, we will make further efforts to reduce our reliance on Russian energy, while ensuring that we do so in an orderly fashion and in ways that provide time for the world to secure alternative and sustainable supplies. In addition, private sector companies are leaving Russia with unprecedented speed and solidarity. We stand with our companies that are seeking an orderly withdrawal from the Russian market.

We remain resolved to isolate Russia further from our economies and the international financial system. Consequently, we commit to taking further measures as soon as possible in the context of our ongoing response and consistent with our respective legal authorities and processes:

First, we will endeavor, consistent with our national processes, to take action that will deny Russia Most-Favoured-Nation status relating to key products. This will revoke important benefits of Russia’s membership of the World Trade Organization and ensure that the products of Russian companies no longer receive Most-Favoured-Nation treatment in our economies. We welcome the ongoing preparation of a statement by a broad coalition of WTO members, including the G7, announcing their revocation of Russia’s Most-Favoured-Nation status.

Second, we are working collectively to prevent Russia from obtaining financing from the leading multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Russia cannot grossly violate international law and expect to benefit from being part of the international economic order. We welcome the IMF and World Bank Group’s rapid and ongoing efforts to get financial assistance to Ukraine. We also welcome the steps the OECD has taken to restrict Russia’s participation in relevant bodies.

Third, we commit to continuing our campaign of pressure against Russian elites, proxies and oligarchs close to President Putin and other architects of the war as well as their families and their enablers. We commend the work done by many of our governments to identify and freeze mobile and immobile assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities, and resolve to continue this campaign of pressure as a matter of priority. To that end, we have operationalised the task force announced on February 26, which will target the assets of Russian elites close to President Putin and the architects of his war. Our sanctions packages are carefully targeted so as not to impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Fourth, we commit to maintaining the effectiveness of our restrictive measures, to cracking down on evasion and to closing loop-holes. Specifically, in addition to other measures planned to prevent evasion, we will ensure that the Russian state and elites, proxies and oligarchs cannot leverage digital assets as a means of evading or offsetting the impact of international sanctions, which will further limit their access to the global financial system. It is commonly understood that our current sanctions already cover crypto-assets. We commit to taking measures to better detect and interdict any illicit activity, and we will impose costs on illicit Russian actors using digital assets to enhance and transfer their wealth, consistent with our national processes.

Fifth, we are resolved to fighting off the Russian regime’s attempts to spread disinformation. We affirm and support the right of the Russian people to free and unbiased information.

Sixth, we stand ready to impose further restrictions on exports and imports of key goods and technologies on the Russian Federation, which aim at denying Russia revenues and at ensuring that our citizens are not underwriting President Putin’s war, consistent with national processes. We note that international companies are already withdrawing from the Russian market. We will make sure that the elites, proxies and oligarchs that support President Putin’s war are deprived of their access to luxury goods and assets. The elites who sustain Putin’s war machine should no longer be able to reap the gains of this system, squandering the resources of the Russian people.

Seventh, Russian entities directly or indirectly supporting the war should not have access to new debt and equity investments and other forms of international capital. Our citizens are united in the view that their savings and investments should not fund the companies that underpin Russia’s economy and war machine. We will continue working together to develop and implement measures that will further limit Russia’s ability to raise money internationally.

We stand united and in solidarity with our partners, including developing and emerging economies, which unjustly bear the cost and impact of this war, for which we hold President Putin, his regime and supporters, and the Lukashenko regime, fully responsible. Together, we will work to preserve stability of energy markets as well as food security globally as Russia’s invasion threatens Ukraine’s capacity to grow crops this year.

We continue to stand with the Ukrainian people and the Government of Ukraine. We will continue to evaluate the impacts of our measures, including on third countries, and are prepared to take further measures to hold President Putin and his regime accountable for his attack on Ukraine.

Thank you Mr President,

Russia has today brought into the Security Council a series of wild, completely baseless and irresponsible conspiracy theories.

Let me put it diplomatically: they are utter nonsense.

There is not a shred of credible evidence that Ukraine has a biological weapons programme.

Ukraine is a State Party to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in good standing.

As we’ve heard, the research facilities are established facilities set up to deal with public health hazards.

The UN briefers today have confirmed this.

This is yet another lie in Russia’s disinformation campaign.

They said they would not invade Ukraine. They then invaded. Foreign Minister Lavrov then said they hadn’t invaded, and he repeated this absurdity yesterday.

A whole pack of lies.

They said Ukraine was preparing a “dirty bomb”.

That was a lie too.

They said yesterday that a pregnant woman staged her injuries in the Mariupol hospital bombing.

That was a grotesque lie.

Russia is sinking to new depths today, but this Council must not get dragged down with it.

So let’s get back to the facts.

Russia is invading Ukraine in violation of international law.

Russia is killing hundreds of civilians through indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities.

It is using cluster munitions and thermobaric rockets, weapons designed to inflict maximum damage wherever they are deployed.

It is targeting hospitals and schools and committing war crimes.

Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are dead. Deaths that will shatter the lives of families they have left behind.

2.5 million Ukrainians have become refugees. One million children forced to flee from President Putin’s invasion.

This is a war of choice that Russia needs to end.

Colleagues,

Russia has broken its commitments under the Charter but we must not let it subvert the multilateral system itself.

As the UN said today, Russia is now putting at threat the global framework for peace and security. The Security Council is responsible for addressing many serious conflicts around the world. We have important work to do.

We do not sit in this Chamber to be an audience for Russia’s domestic propaganda.

And we should not allow Russia to abuse its permanent seat to spread disinformation and lies and pervert the purpose of the Security Council.

Let us resolve today that this Council remains focussed on the real threats to international peace and security.

I thank you.

This is a dangerous moment for freedom-loving people around the world. By launching his brutal assault on the people of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has also committed an assault on the principles that uphold global peace and democracy. But the people of Ukraine are resilient and we will continue to support the Ukrainian people as they defend their country. By choosing to pay for a war instead of investing in the needs of Russians, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure for the Kremlin and ravage the future of the Russian people.

The world is taking action to hold Russia accountable. As a result of unprecedented global sanctions coordination, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan have removed selected Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system and imposed restrictive measures on the Russian Central Bank. After Putin began his invasion, the ruble hit its weakest point in history, and the Russian stock market plunged. Severe sanctions have been imposed on the architects of this war, including Putin himself. We recognize and applaud Guatemala’s early and strong support and leadership in ensuring the international community holds Russia accountable in multilateral fora, including the Government of Guatemala co-sponsoring resolutions in the UN General Assembly and the Organization of American States.

In response to Putin’s war of choice, the vast majority of countries have stood by Ukraine and its people, and countries continue to support them economically, politically and defensively. Measures have been implemented to welcome Ukrainians who have fled the armed conflict and huge humanitarian aid programs and mechanisms have been launched to reduce the suffering of the displaced. Russia’s ability to do business using the international banking system has been restricted, stunting Russia’s ability to finance and grow its military. And we are prepared to do more.

Russia is advancing an invasion of disinformation based on lies, it is therefore of the utmost importance that we remain vigilant against the proliferation of disinformation or false news.

This was an attack that Vladimir Putin has planned for a long time. He methodically moved more than 150,000 troops and military equipment to Ukraine’s border. He moved blood supplies into position and built field hospitals, demonstrating his intentions all along. He rejected every good-faith effort to address his fabricated security concerns and to avoid needless conflict and human suffering by engaging in diplomacy and dialogue.

Russia continues to justify its military aggression by falsely claiming the need to stop “genocide” in Ukraine – despite there being no evidence that genocide was occurring there. We saw Russia use these tactics before, when they invaded Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008.

At almost the very same moment the United Nations Security Council was meeting to stand up for Ukraine’s sovereignty and forestall disaster, Putin launched his invasion in violation of international law. Missiles began to rain down, striking historic cities across Ukraine. Then came air raids, columns of tanks, and battalions of troops, all riding a renewed wave of disinformation and outright lies.

Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now his people will bear the consequences of his decision to invest in war rather than in them.

Putin’s goal of dividing the international community has failed. In the face one of the most significant challenges to democratic ideals since World War II, we have joined together in solidarity. We have united, coordinating intensively to engage as one with Russia and Ukraine, to provide assistance to Ukraine and develop a broad and massive response.

Putin has failed to divide us. Putin has failed to undermine our shared belief in the fundamental right of sovereign nations to choose their destiny and their allies. And Putin will fail to erase the proud nation of Ukraine.

Putin’s aggression against Ukraine will cost Russia profoundly, both economically and strategically. The Russian people deserve better from their government than the immense cost to their future that this invasion has precipitated.

Liberty, democracy, and human dignity are forces far more powerful than fear and oppression. In the contest between democracy and autocracy, between sovereignty and subjugation, make no mistake: Freedom will prevail.