More than 50 UN member states on Monday urged Russia to accept a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine and return to talks aimed at lasting peace.
The call came as Kyiv marked 35 years since declaring independence from the Soviet Union.
Dsnish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen delivered the joint statement at the UN on behalf of countries including the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Canada, North Macedonia, Japan and Ukraine, as well as the EU.
“Ukraine wants peace. We want peace,” Mr Rasmussen said. “We strongly urge Russia to respond to the calls for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire and resume talks for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law, including the UN Charter.”
The countries said Russia could end the war immediately by accepting the unconditional ceasefire sought by Ukraine and the international community for more than 18 months.
The statement came on Ukraine's Independence Day, four and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
The group also called for prisoner-of-war exchanges to be completed, unlawfully detained people to be released and Ukrainians who were forcibly transferred or deported, including thousands of children, to be returned safely.
It warned that the war's effects were spreading beyond Ukraine, with airspace breaches and drone incidents in Europe, and Russian attacks on Black Sea grain shipments and Ukrainian ports, which threatened global food security.
The countries reaffirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, saying there was “no alternative to a just and lasting peace”.
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main aims in launching the 2022 invasion was to bring Ukraine back under Moscow’s influence.
Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, 1991, a decision later overwhelmingly backed in a nationwide referendum.
With little movement on the front line and US-led peace efforts making no clear progress, Russia and Ukraine have increased bombings, killing civilians and damaging infrastructure.
Civilian casualties have risen sharply as attacks intensify, the countries said, quoting UN figures that showed at least 437 civilians were killed in Ukraine in July, the highest monthly toll since March 2022.
At least 68,000 civilians, including nearly 4,000 children, have been killed or wounded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Ukraine’s UN ambassador Andrii Melnyk said July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians as the country was facing critical shortages of air defence interceptors.
Mr Melnyk accused Russia of deliberately attacking civilians with ballistic missiles and urged Ukraine’s allies to release more air defence systems.
“If we are to be completely frank, my fellow citizens find it difficult to understand why missiles capable of saving hundreds of lives every day are being kept in stowages instead of being used to shield Ukrainian civilians,” he said.
Mr Melnyk acknowledged global production constraints and shortages of air defence systems but called on Ukraine’s allies “to provide Ukraine with all the available Patriot interceptor missiles currently held".
Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, meanwhile, accused Kyiv of deliberately targeting Russian civilians after failing to make gains on the battlefield.
“Having failed to achieve the desired results on the battlefield, the Kiev regime has now definitively slipped into outright terror against Russia’s civilian population,” Mr Nebenzya told the Council.
He accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of seeking more Western weapons that were then being used to strike Russian cities, residential areas and civilian infrastructure.
“The calculation is obvious: to intimidate people, sow chaos and destabilize the situation inside Russia,” Mr Nebenzya said.
