Thank you, Mister President,
Estonia fully aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union. We thank the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine for the important update.
Last week, the Helsinki Commission heard the haunting story of Yulia Paievska, a Ukrainian medic held captive by Russian forces in Mauripol. She recalled an exchange with a Russian soldier, who asked, as he was torturing her, “Do you know why we do this to you”? Her response to the soldier was: Because you can.
The scenes of impunity play out before us: mass graves in Izyum, targeted executions in Bucha, systemic rape, illegal adoptions, forced deportations, filtration camps marked by torture and enforced disappearances. Crimes so widespread and systematic, that degrees of guilt begin to lose all meaning. Atrocities that betray a truth we have long known: Russia has repeatedly demonstrated their will to destroy the Ukrainian state and nation in both words and deeds.
We gather today out of profound moral conviction to prove Ms. Paievska wrong, to say that NO, Russia, in fact, cannot, must not, escape accountability. Thus, in the space between conviction and action, all international and regional accountability and monitoring mechanisms, including this Commission of Inquiry, must resolutely stand. Brick by brick, Russia’s fortress of impunity will fall.
Distinguished Commissioners, what more can the international community do to help investigating and documenting the massive human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine?
I thank you!