Deaths, disasters, sexual violence, violent disappearances… Many of its members United Nations Security Council focused on the plight of Ukrainian citizens for a year, with the Secretary General of the Organization summing it up in one sentence: “Their lives are a real hell.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused “death, destruction and displacement on a large scaleAntonio Guterres told the Security Council, which observed a minute’s silence to mark the anniversary.

“Life is a real hell for the Ukrainian people“, commented the general secretary.

About 17.6 million people, i.e. 40% of the population, need humanitarian assistance and protection while 40% of the population do not have enough food. “The war has sparked an unprecedented migration crisis in Europe”, with eight million refugees in various countries and another five million displaced within Ukraine. More than half of children in Ukraine have been forced to flee their homes, and some of those separated from their families are at risk of violence or exploitation.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights also recorded “dozens of cases of sexual violence against men, women and girls” and let’s not forget “the hundreds of cases of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention of civilians».

Infrastructure is being tested: water, energy and heating systems were destroyed in the middle of winter, Antonio Guterres recalled.

“A year of inhuman suffering for the Ukrainian people, whose resistance and courage are admirable“, commented the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Catherine Colonna. “A year of extortion, executions, bombings, torture, rape, kidnapping and displacement of children».

“At least 6,000 children were kidnapped and taken to RussiaUS Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said. “With these Russian atrocities it is easy to be stunned, to lose the ability to be shocked. But we cannot allow the crimes Russia is committing to become the new normal“, he added, expressing the hope that those responsible will be held accountable.

“Ukraine is not a victim“, answered Russia’s ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia. “We cannot accept a Russophilic sponge nest on our borders“, he added. Earlier, when Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, concluding his speech, stood and called for a minute’s silence “in memory of the victims” of Russian aggression, Nebenzia also stood up and said that “all the victims of this which has been happening in Ukraine since 2014”.