Melnyk at UN Security Council: Ukraine rejects Russia’s ultimatums, will not abandon single millimeter of its soil
Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Andrii Melnyk stated that Russia is suffering enormous battlefield losses while making only minimal territorial gains, and is also attempting to achieve its objectives through diplomatic pressure and ultimatums.
He said this during a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent in New York.
Melnyk stressed that Ukraine is “fighting for its homeland,” while Russia is “burning through its own population.”
According to the Ukrainian envoy, no army since World War I has paid such an astronomical death toll for such negligible territorial gains as Russia has.
He said Russia loses an average of 254 soldiers for every square kilometer of Ukrainian territory it manages to occupy.
He also compared these figures to the Winter War of 1939-1940, noting that at that time “the cost of human lives per square kilometer was roughly one hundred times lower.”
“This comparison illustrates the fundamental reality of this war: Russia is achieving minimal territorial gain at an extraordinarily high human price,” Melnyk said.
He cited calculations based on Russian losses in the war.
“Just multiply 6,000 by 254 dead soldiers for each square kilometer. According to this brutal logic of war, in order to seize the whole territory of Donbass, or the Donetsk region, by military means, Mr. Putin would have to send at least another one and a half million soldiers to their deaths,” he said.
According to him, this would mean more than doubling Russia’s current losses, bringing the total to over three million.
“Even for Mr. Putin, for whom the value he attaches to the life of his own citizens appears to be less than a penny, such a figure would be catastrophic,” Melnyk emphasized.
He also stated that at the current pace of the war, in order to occupy all of Ukraine Russia would have “to sacrifice over 122 million soldiers to reach this goal.”
“Given the snail’s pace of Russia’s military advances, this inglorious ‘victory’ would take around 183 years,” he added.
He ironically referred to Putin as a “military genius,” who, he said, “cannot fail to understand that his insane objective of capturing the whole of Ukraine is one he will never, ever be able to achieve by military means.”
The Ukrainian envoy suggested that instead of conquering Ukraine, “Mr Putin appears more likely to destroy Russia itself.”
He also pointed to “massive military losses, a collapsing economy, and growing internal social turmoil,” which could lead to “the territorial disintegration of Russia.”
Melnyk emphasized that Russia is demanding the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donetsk region as a condition for negotiations, but “Ukraine rejects any type of ultimatum.”
“We will never, ever abandon a single square millimeter of our soil. And we will never, ever abandon any of our fellow citizens,” he stressed.
The diplomat also highlighted the absurdity of Kremlin claims regarding the capture of the Donetsk region.
Russia is the largest country in the world, with an area of 17.1 million square kilometers. Therefore, 6,000 square kilometers of the Donetsk region amounts to just 0.03% of its territory, he said.
At the same time, Moscow is trying to convince international mediators that peace supposedly depends on Ukrainian concessions.
“Does anyone seriously believe this fairy tale? We don’t,” the Ukrainian envoy concluded.
As reported, the UN Security Council met on Monday to discuss the latest Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities.
Photo provided by Andrii Melnyk