Ukraine’s UN Ambassador Andriy Melnyk demanded decisive international action against Russia’s escalating ballistic missile campaign on Monday, telling the Security Council that words of condemnation alone cannot protect Ukrainian civilians from Moscow’s attacks.
Speaking as Ukraine marked the 35th anniversary of its independence, Melnyk said Russia was “already losing” the war it launched against Ukraine and would ultimately be defeated despite intensifying attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure.
“Despite all the barbaric attacks against civilians in Ukraine, Russia is already losing and will ultimately lose this war,” Melnyk said.
He pointed to the mounting economic and military cost Russia is paying for its invasion, including weakening state finances, falling energy revenues, battlefield losses, and Ukraine’s expanding strikes against infrastructure supporting Moscow’s war effort.
Melnyk said Russia cannot indefinitely sustain a war of attrition while spending enormous resources on its invasion and absorbing growing damage to the infrastructure that enables its military campaign.
He also pointed to warnings from inside Russia’s own economic establishment that the country faces increasingly serious consequences from the prolonged war.
Russian war infrastructure is a legitimate target
Melnyk also laid out Ukraine’s legal position on strikes against Russian facilities used to support Moscow’s invasion.
He said infrastructure that makes an effective contribution to Russia’s military operations and whose destruction offers a definite military advantage may qualify as a military objective under Article 52, paragraph 2, of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.
“The same legal test applies to Russia’s dual-use infrastructure,” Melnyk said.
“Ukraine’s position is absolutely clear: our armed forces only target military objectives that contribute to Russia’s war effort, never civilians.”
He said Ukrainian forces act under the country’s inherent right to self-defense and follow the requirements of necessity, proportionality, distinction, and international humanitarian law.
“Ukraine takes all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm,” he said.
“The only person responsible for any damages, for any casualties in Russia, is Mr. Putin alone.”
Melnyk contrasted Ukraine’s approach with Russia’s repeated strikes on Ukrainian civilian areas.
“And this is where the fundamental difference between Ukraine and Russia lies,” he said.
He rejected Russian claims at the Security Council that Ukrainian air defense was responsible for civilian deaths in Ukraine, pointing instead to attacks in which Russian drones were seen striking civilian targets.
“Deliberately genocidal, barbaric nature”
Melnyk cited the recent Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih, where a drone struck the city’s largest supermarket and a second strike hit after rescuers arrived.
He stressed that there was no military objective near the supermarket.
“Intentionally – I repeat, intentionally – hitting the city’s largest supermarket with no military objective anywhere nearby,” Melnyk said.
“And when rescue operations began, Russia sent a second drone to strike the rescuers at the scene.”
At least 16 civilians were killed and more than 100 injured, including 23 children, he said.
“This is the deliberately genocidal, barbaric nature of Russia’s war against the Ukrainian people.”
Melnyk said Ukrainians were marking Independence Day with sharply contrasting emotions – pride in their sovereign state and grief over the destruction Russia continues to inflict.
“On the one hand, we feel an extraordinary sense of happiness that for 35 years now Ukrainians have had the blessing of living in a free and sovereign state,” he said.
“For us, it is truly a gift from God, but it is also the result of the struggle of generations of Ukrainians over the course of centuries – generations who dreamt of, fought for, and sacrificed for the fundamental right to live freely in their own independent country.”
For Ukrainians, he said, independence is not symbolic.
“For us Ukrainians, statehood and independence are not some abstract formalities. They are our greatest national value, the very foundation of our existence as a people.”
But Ukraine is celebrating that anniversary, Melnyk said, during “the most barbaric phase of Russia’s war of annihilation against our nation.”
He highlighted the mounting toll of Russian attacks, noting that July 2026 was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the first months of the full-scale invasion.
At the same time, Ukraine continues to face critical shortages of the air defense systems and interceptor missiles needed to protect its cities.
Putin’s campaign of “ballistic terror”
Melnyk described Russia’s intensified ballistic missile attacks as a deliberate campaign of terror against Ukraine’s population.
“Putin has unleashed the most cynical and the most brutal campaign of ballistic terror in modern human history, deliberately targeting ordinary people across Ukraine,” he said.
He emphasized the speed and destructive force of ballistic missiles and the almost nonexistent reaction time they leave civilians.
“For those beneath its murderous trajectory, there is no time to react and almost no warning,” Melnyk said.
“What arrives from the sky is more than a missile; it is a deadly mass of explosives descending with enormous kinetic energy.”
He described Russia’s Iskander-M ballistic missile, which can carry a warhead of up to 700 kilograms and plunge toward its target at several times the speed of sound.
Melnyk said the danger was not theoretical for him.
“Believe me, believe me, I know what I’m talking about. I just arrived from Kyiv.”
During his stay in the Ukrainian capital, he said, Kyiv was repeatedly attacked at night with Russian ballistic missiles.
“I can assure you, it is a truly terrifying feeling when you simply have no time to reach a bomb shelter.”
The interval between an air raid alert and the impact of a ballistic missile on a residential neighborhood can be only a few minutes, he said.
“All that remained for me and my family, my parents-in-law, was to hide in the corridor of our apartment, praying that the missile would not hit our building.”
Melnyk compared Russia’s ballistic attacks on Kyiv to “the most atrocious form of Russian roulette imaginable.”
“Except that in Putin’s distorted version, the gun is a ballistic missile and the target is a peaceful city.”
“God spared us during those horrifying attacks. But many other Ukrainians were not so fortunate.”
On one of the nights following his arrival, Melnyk said, Russian missiles killed 17 civilians in Kyiv alone.
“And it is against this hellish reality that Ukrainians are marking the 35th anniversary of the restoration of our independence today.”
Melnyk then challenged the Security Council and the wider international community to move beyond declarations of concern and take measures capable of weakening Russia’s ability to continue its attacks.
“Distinguished members of the Council, all this resembles the most appalling and abhorrent theater of the absurd imaginable in history,” he said.
“Day and night, Ukraine, a great European nation, is being brutally destroyed before the eyes of the entire international community by Russian ballistic missiles and killer drones.”
He said the international response too often stops at meetings and condemnations while Russia continues killing Ukrainians.
“And all that the world community seems capable of doing is to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council and at best condemn Russia’s war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed on a staggering scale.”
Melnyk also criticized governments that avoid directly naming Russia when discussing the invasion.
“And some choose instead to hide behind abstract formulas, avoiding even mentioning Russia, the country that launched this war of extinction against Ukraine and continues to wage it with impunity.”
Melnyk reserved some of his strongest criticism for the Security Council’s failure to halt Russia’s aggression.
“What a disgrace that to this day the UN Security Council has failed to take effective action to hold Russia to account and to prevent a daily genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out in plain sight of the world,” he said.
Ukraine values the fact that Russia’s war remains on the Council’s agenda, Melnyk said, but diplomatic statements do not stop Russian missiles.
“Words alone, even the strongest words of condemnation of Russia’s criminal actions uttered in this chamber, cannot stop the killing force of Russian ballistic missiles.”
“Only decisive action – not words, not even the strongest words – can stop this deadly Russian war machinery.”
Ukraine demands sweeping sanctions
Melnyk called for the toughest possible sanctions against Russia, particularly companies directly involved in producing the missiles, drones and other weapons Moscow uses against Ukraine.
“It is time for the Security Council to impose the most painful and far-reaching sanctions against Russia, against foremost those enterprises which produce deadly weapons, so that Mr. Putin is compelled to stop this war.”
He also called for an end to Moscow’s ability to use its permanent seat on the Security Council to shield itself from consequences for its own invasion.
“And it is time to put an end to Russia’s abuse of its veto power as a fig leaf, as an excuse for inaction,” Melnyk said.