10/06/2026
🎙 Statement by Ms. Iulia Zhdanova, Head of the Delegation of the Russian Federation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, at the 1139th meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation
Vienna, June 10, 2026
Agenda item: General statements
Subject: OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Мilitary Aspects of Security: Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Girls
Read full text: https://t.me/armscontrolrus/8720?single
• We express our bewilderment regarding the topic for discussion proposed by the Georgian Chairpersonship within the framework of the “Security Dialogue.” The Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security, adopted at the CSCE summit in Budapest in 1994, contains not a single mention of specific groups of non-combatants in the context of armed conflict. We are firmly against the erosion of the provisions of the Code and attempts to artificially apply them to unrelated issues, including climate, the situation of women and children, etc.
• The discussion of today’s topic — the impact of armed conflict on women and girls — is essentially the prerogative of other OSCE bodies and the relevant UN agencies. We must note that, at present, “women’s” and “children’s” issues have become the subject of manipulation in many international forums. Unfortunately, our Forum is no exception.
Today’s statements by the delegations of the EU, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, and others have once again confirmed this. Amid the highest emotional intensity, there is a near-total absence of evidence and basic critical thinking. In the finest traditions of the “post-truth era,” false assertions are propagated as if they were axioms, rather than verifying facts.
Of course, with this approach, a false sense of impunity provokes new crimes against women and children. Behind the empty talk that distracts attention, not only their interests but their very lives are sacrificed to a distorted political reality. They say war will wash everything away.
• The Russian Federation has no connection with the abduction of Ukrainian children. To avoid further misunderstandings, we urge the delegations to review the detailed report published by the Office of Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation as of 7 May. It provides comprehensive information regarding the number and subsequent fate of children rescued in 2022 from brutal shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the legal legitimacy of the actions taken in this regard. As for the justification of the evacuation measures, the terrorist attack in Starobelsk appears to be a vivid illustration of what awaits women and children who find themselves in the area affected by Ukrainian artillery fire during the escalation.
• Twelve years ago, in late April 2014, the Kiev regime — which had come to power through unconstitutional means — launched a so-called “anti-terrorist operation” against the then-civilian population of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions, in violation of the country’s Constitution, using army forces, special services, and hastily formed armed groups of a nationalist and openly neo-Banderite nature (others refused to fire at their own people). All residents of the two Ukrainian regions without exception — men, women, and children, including newborns in their cradles — were publicly declared terrorists.
• The women of Donetsk and Lugansk have made a tremendous contribution to sustaining life in the region. They have led or joined key local government bodies, actively engaged in the Minsk negotiation process, and their names are well known within the OSCE. Natalia Nikonorova has been actively involved in the work of the Contact Group format for many years. The contribution of Daria Morozova and Olga Kobtseva to the work of the Contact Group’s humanitarian subgroup cannot be overstated; thanks to them, many detained persons have returned to their families on both sides of the contact line.
📸 Illustration: drawings by students of art schools in Donbass (Makeevka, Gorlovka, Rubezhnoe, and Severodonetsk) as part of the exhibition "World of Peace: Child's Dream"
Russian Foreign Ministry - МИД России
