Government and intergovernmental reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine received widespread international condemnation, leading to new sanctions being imposed on Russia, which triggered a Russian financial crisis. Reactions among governments have most often been negative, with criticism and condemnation, particularly in Europe, the Americas, and Southeast Asia.

International organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have also voiced significant criticism of the invasion, over its not having justifiable precedent. From the early phases of the invasion, the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for nations to either establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine or provide Ukraine with air support. Zelenskyy also called for "peace", stating that he does not "want Ukraine's history to be a legend about 300 Spartans." Zelenskyy, in an address to the British House of Commons, also invoked the words of Winston Churchill by saying "We will fight at sea; we will fight in the air; we will protect our land. We will fight everywhere ... and we will not surrender."

Ukrainian officials have published photos and videos of killed and captured Russian soldiers. Some experts have argued that Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention prohibits videos of captured soldiers.

On 2 April, Zelenskyy warned Ukrainian residents that Russian forces retreating from around Kyiv were "mining the whole territory. They are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed", and leaving behind "a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers."

Russia

On 26 February 2022, the Russian communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, ordered independent media outlets to take down reports that described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an "assault, invasion, or declaration of war", threatening fines and blocks. From 1 March, Russian schools started war-themed social studies classes for teenagers based on the Russian government's position on history; one teaching manual (publicized by independent media outlet MediaZona) asserted that "genocide" had been occurring in eastern Ukraine for eight years, and that Russia was responding with a "special peacekeeping operation" in Ukraine, which was "not a war".

Russian President Vladimir Putin on 4 March declared that Russia had "absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors". Putin called for other countries to "think about normalizing relations and cooperating normally", stating there was "no need to escalate the situation, impose restrictions". On 5 March he criticized Ukraine for resisting the invasion, saying, "they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood." Also that day, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the countries of the European Union and NATO to "stop pumping weapons" to Ukraine, claiming that terrorists might use the weapons against airplanes.

On 7 March, the Russian government adopted a list of countries and regions "taking unfriendly actions against Russia, Russian companies, and citizens" – Albania, Andorra, Australia, United Kingdom, all European Union states, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, the Federated States of Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, San Marino, North Macedonia, Singapore, United States, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, and Japan.

Putin on 8 March declared that Russian "conscript soldiers are not participating in hostilities" in Ukraine "and will not participate in them". On 9 March, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that it had "discovered" Russian conscript soldiers participating in the military operation in Ukraine, and that "almost all" of these conscripts had returned to Russia, but some other conscripts had been "captured" in Ukraine.

On 9 March, Russia bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol; Associated Press journalists on the scene took photos and videos of multiple bloodstained, pregnant mothers leaving the blown-out maternity ward. One pregnant woman and her baby died after the bombing. Russian officials provided different, shifting stances on the bombing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially stated that Russia does "not fire on civilian targets", then later said he lacked "clear information about what happened". Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized "pathetic shouting about so-called atrocities", stating that the hospital had no patients and doctors. According to him, it was controlled by Ukrainian extremists. Russia's Defense Ministry denied bombing the hospital, and accused Ukraine of staging the bombing. Russian officials called images of the attack "fake news" and labelled a pregnant woman pictured fleeing the bombed hospital as an actor.

On 16 March, a Russian airstrike hit a theatre in Mariupol containing hundreds of civilians; satellite pictures three days prior showed large words "DETI" ("children" in Russian) displayed as a signal to Russian forces about those inside the theatre. Russia's military denied bombing the theatre. Russia's foreign ministry said that it was a "lie" that Russia bombed the theatre, insisting that "Russia's armed forces don't bomb towns and cities". During the invasion, Russia used airstrikes against Ukrainian cities including Mariupol, Kyiv and Kharkiv.

On 16 March, Putin gave a speech calling Russian opponents of the war "scum and traitors," saying that "natural and necessary self-cleansing of society will only strengthen our country."

On 25 March, the leader of the Russian military's General Staff Main Operational Directorate, Sergei Rudskoi, stated that the first stage of the operation had "generally been accomplished", and the "combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (was) considerably reduced", allowing Russia "to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas" in eastern Ukraine. A day later, Russian forces bombed Lviv, a city in western Ukraine.

On 1 April, Russia accused Ukraine of conducting an airstrike on Russian territory; this was the first such accusation since the start of the Russian invasion. Russia said that an airstrike on a fuel depot in Belgorod had upset the peace negotiations with Ukraine.

After Russian forces occupied Bucha, Kyiv Oblast for five weeks and then withdrew, they were accused by Bucha officials of extrajudicial killings of Bucha residents. Russia's Ministry of Defense responded on 3 April that "not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions" during the Russian occupation of Bucha. This claim was contradicted by many eyewitness accounts by Bucha residents.

The Russian Ministry of Defence suggested that corpses of dead civilians had been placed on the streets of Bucha after "all Russian units withdrew completely" from the city on 30 March, but satellite photos were taken by Maxar Technologies showed that at least 11 body-sized objects on Bucha's Yablonska Street appeared between 9 and 11 March, remaining there for more than three weeks, in the same positions as 11 civilian corpses in a 1 April video. A high-ranking Russian official, Mikhail Ulyanov, claimed that Bucha's mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk did not discuss "dead bodies in the streets" in a 31 March video, but Fedoruk on 7 March had already done so, and on 28 March, accused Russian forces of killings and rapes in Bucha.

RIA Novosti, a media outlet controlled and owned by the Russian government, published an article by Timofey Sergeytsev that declared that "Nazis who took weapons must be killed in numbers as much as possible", while "most of the [Ukrainian] people are guilty, they are passive Nazis, Nazi enablers ... and must be punished". The article also stated that Ukraine "may develop only in dependency to Russia", and that "history has proven Ukraine may not exist as a national state". On 5 April 2022, Russia's opposition politician Alexei Navalny said the "monstrosity of lies" in the Russian state media "is unimaginable. And, unfortunately, so is its persuasiveness for those who have no access to alternative information." He tweeted that "warmongers" among Russian state media personalities "should be treated as war criminals. From the editors-in-chief to the talk show hosts to the news editors, [they] should be sanctioned now and tried someday." In July 2022, Alexei Gorinov, a member of the Krasnoselsky district council in Moscow, was sentenced to seven years in prison after making anti-war comments at a council meeting in March, including stating that "our country has aggressively attacked a neighbouring country" and "kids in Ukraine are dying each day". Lawyer Pavel Chikov said that this was the first jail term under the new Russian 2022 war censorship laws.

Other countries

The Economist, a British weekly newspaper has cited that one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that many countries have started to drift towards Russia, while countries such Bangladesh and Madagascar, have shifted away from Russia.

Condemns Russia

Governments in exile

Non UN members

Leans to Ukraine

While these countries have taken some neutral positions, in general they have been described as being supportive of Ukraine.

Neutral countries

Non UN members

Leans to Russia

Many of these countries are described as neutral but have remained friendly with the Russian Federation ever since it was isolated by the international community.

Supports Russia

Non UN members

Expulsion of diplomats

More than a dozen countries expelled Russian diplomats following the invasion, citing espionage activities incompatible with diplomatic status, and then also Russian killing of civilians in the Bucha massacre. Additionally, the European Union declared 19 Russian diplomats personae non-gratae.

Intergovernmental and international organizations

NATO

Following the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, eight NATO member states – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia – triggered security consultations under Article 4. The Estonian government issued a statement by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas saying: "Russia's widespread aggression is a threat to the entire world and to all NATO countries, and NATO consultations on strengthening the security of the Allies must be initiated to implement additional measures for ensuring the defence of NATO Allies. The most effective response to Russia's aggression is unity." On 24 February, Stoltenberg announced new plans that "will enable us to deploy capabilities and forces, including the NATO Response Force, to where they are needed". Following the invasion, NATO announced plans to increase military deployments in the Baltics, Poland, and Romania.

After the 25 February UN Security Council meeting, Stoltenberg announced that parts of the NATO Response Force would be deployed, for the first time ever, to NATO members along the eastern border. He stated that forces would include elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), led by France. The US announced on 24 February that it would deploy 7,000 troops to join the 5,000 already in Europe. NATO forces included the USS Harry S. Truman's Carrier Strike Group 8, which entered the Mediterranean Sea the previous week as part of a planned exercise. The carrier strike group was placed under NATO command, the first time this had occurred since the Cold War.

As Russia began to build forces on Ukraine's border in the lead-up to the invasion, Finland and Sweden, both neutral states, increased their cooperation with NATO. Both countries attended the emergency NATO summit as members of NATO's Partnership for Peace, and both condemned the invasion and provided assistance to Ukraine. On 25 February, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova threatened Finland and Sweden with "military and political consequences" if they attempted to join NATO. Both Finnish and Swedish public opinion shifted in favour of joining NATO after the invasion. A public petition asking the Parliament of Finland to hold a referendum to join NATO reached the required 50,000 signatures, prompting a parliamentary discussion on 1 March.

On 8 March, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that "any attack against any NATO country [or] NATO territory ... will trigger Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. On 11 March, Biden proclaimed that while the United States would, as part of NATO, "defend every single inch of NATO territory with [its] full might", NATO would not "fight a war against Russia in Ukraine", as such "direct conflict between NATO and Russia is World War III, something we must strive to prevent".

On 13 March, Jake Sullivan, the United States National Security Advisor to President Biden, warned of a full-fledged NATO response if Russia were to hit any part of NATO territory. Sullivan added on 22 March, during Biden's trip to Europe to discuss updating NATO's posture towards Russia, that Biden would emphasize three key issues: new sanctions against Russia and tightening existing sanctions, longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture and contingencies in the case of nuclear weapons use, and 'joint action' on enhancing energy security in Europe, which is highly reliant on Russian gas. Zelenskyy repeatedly urged NATO to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which was rejected by the organization as it would involve shooting down Russian aircraft, an act that would significantly escalate the war to involve NATO.

On 16 March, a meeting of NATO defence ministers agreed to continue supplying Ukraine with military, financial and humanitarian aid, though Stoltenberg ruled out the deployment of forces in Ukraine or a no-fly-zone, saying NATO has "a responsibility" not to escalate the war beyond Ukraine.

Upon his arrival for the 2022 Brussels extraordinary summit on 24 March, Biden increased the amount of new aid offered to Ukraine by one billion dollars and announced added guarantees for NATO obligations to protect all NATO-allied nations which border Ukraine. On 28 March, Biden, at the end of his NATO trip to Europe, reaffirmed his condemnation of Putin, saying that he would "'make no apologies'" for previously stating that "'Putin cannot remain in power'". On 29 March, Kallas sided with Biden's condemnation and called for the further isolation of Putin from international politics. As part of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence, NATO countries agreed to establish four multinational battalion-sized battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, on top of four existing battlegroups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

On 6 and 7 April, foreign ministers from NATO member states as well as Ukraine, the European Union, Finland, Sweden, Japan, New Zealand and Australia convened to discuss further sanctions on Russia and additional arms deliveries to Ukraine.

European Union

On 27 February 2022, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union would ban Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik in response to disinformation and their coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. She also said that the EU would finance the purchase and delivery of military equipment to Ukraine and proposed a ban on Russian aircraft using EU airspace. The following day, the Council of the European Union adopted two assistance measures to strengthen Ukraine's military capabilities. The measures, for a total value of €500 million, financed the provision of military equipment to the Ukrainian armed forces including – for the first time in EU history – weapons and other lethal equipment.

On 28 February, the EU imposed a ban on transactions with the Russian Central Bank and a ban on the overflight of EU airspace and on access to EU airports by Russian carriers. On 2 March, a SWIFT ban for certain Russian banks was adopted, ensuring that they were disconnected from the international financial system, and the broadcasting activities in the EU of the outlets Sputnik and RT were suspended. On 10 March, additional measures targeting the Belarusian financial sector were agreed upon, and the EU imposed restrictive measures, including an asset freeze and a travel ban on 160 prominent businesspeople ("oligarchs") and members of the Russian Federation Council. At the onset of the war, similar measures had already been applied on members of Russia's Security Council and Duma, and on other individuals.

On 15 March, the EU decided to impose a fourth package of economic and individual sanctions, including trade restrictions for iron, steel, and luxury goods. The European Commission claimed that restricting steel imports could lead to a loss of €3.3 billion in revenue for Russia, and von der Leyen explained that the EU was working to suspend Russia's membership rights in multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. On 23 March, the Council decided to double the funding for the Ukrainian armed forces, bringing the total amount from €500 million to €1 billion. On 1 April, President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola visited Kyiv to "show the EU's support for Ukraine" and to meet with Ukrainian officials.

On 8 April, the EU passed the fifth round of sanctions, which included an embargo on Russian coal, restrictions on Russian-flagged ships in EU ports, restrictions on Russian and Belarusian road transport in the EU, a ban on four Russian banks, export bans of high-tech goods and expanded sanctions on family members of individuals already sanctioned. The same day, a delegation including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and prime minister of Slovakia Eduard Heger visited Ukraine. Von der Leyen presented Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a questionnaire to join the EU; she also visited the city of Bucha to observe the aftermath of the Bucha massacre. Borrell announced that the EU delegation to Ukraine, headed by Matti Maasikas, would return to Kyiv after it was evacuated at the outbreak of war.

International Criminal Court

On 17 March 2023, International Criminal Court (ICC) judges issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin for war crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among the charges includes having the taking of Ukrainian children by Russian forces. In addition to Putin, ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Russia's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

See also

• Reactions to the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis
• 2022 boycott of Russia and Belarus
• Corporate responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine
• List of companies that applied sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War
• Legality of Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine
• List of military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War
• Foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
• International recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic

Notes

References

External links

• Archive of the Kremlin's official websites when hacked by Anonymous