24 February 2022 will forever be recalled as the day when Russia started its brutal, unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine. This was and remains a case of pure aggression and a clear-cut breach of the UN Charter.

A major nuclear power has attacked a neighbouring country and is threatening reprisals on any other state that may come to its rescue. This is not only the greatest violation of international law, it is a violation of the basic principles of human co-existence. It is costing many lives with unknown consequences ahead of us.

This war is neither ‘just a European issue’, nor is it about the ‘West versus the rest’. It is about the kind of world we all want to live in.

One year on, we continue to condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine, because these are among the darkest hours for Europe since World War II.