Conflict
The Russia-Ukraine Conflict
The Kenya Security Council statement delivered by Amb Kimani that went viral worldwide is part of a much longer file: a year of near-monthly statements on the war's humanitarian toll, its food and arms crises, and its unresolved history.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict did not begin in February 2022. Russian forces annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in March 2014, and Moscow-backed separatists have held parts of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in a low-intensity war ever since. In February 2022, Russia recognized the separatist-held Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states, and three days later launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on multiple fronts, the largest conventional war in Europe since 1945.
The invasion prompted the Security Council to meet in urgent session and the General Assembly to convene only its eleventh emergency special session in UN history, which went on to condemn the invasion by a vote of 141 to 5 with 35 abstentions.
Kenya's own record on this file runs far beyond the single February 21 speech that made it famous: a January 31 statement abstaining on the procedural vote to even hold the Council's first session on the buildup; two statements on February 23 alone (one at the General Assembly, one at an urgent 21:30 Council session, both before the invasion the next morning); and a same-day pair on February 28 addressing racism against fleeing Africans, first at the General Assembly's emergency session and again that afternoon at the Council.
That was followed by a near-monthly cadence through the rest of 2022 covering the humanitarian toll, sexual violence and trafficking, hate speech and incitement, food and fertiliser markets (including a private-sector keynote to Kenyan business leaders), and the arms proliferation debate that recurred through the war's first winter.
Across this fuller record, several throughlines recur more consistently than the single viral speech suggests: a repeated call for Security Council reform and an end to "pen-holdership" privileges tied to permanent membership; a sustained argument that racism and ethnocentrism are themselves early-warning signals of atrocity, central to the war rather than a side issue; and a consistent refusal, even at a Russian-convened Arria meeting on alleged Ukrainian war crimes, to take either side's framing of accountability at face value, calling instead for impartial UN-led investigation of all parties.
More than four years later the war remains unresolved. Front lines have largely stabilized since late 2025, and repeated ceasefire proposals and negotiating rounds, including trilateral United States-Ukraine-Russia talks in Geneva in February 2026, have not produced a settlement; the dispute over Ukrainian territory Russia claims but does not fully control remains open as of mid-2026.
Independent Sources for This Introduction
Contemporary Reporting
Chronology
| 2014-03-18 | event | Russia annexes Crimea Russia formally annexes Ukraine's Crimean peninsula following a disputed referendum, and Moscow-backed separatists take up arms in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region shortly after. This low-intensity war continues for the next eight years and is the immediate backdrop to the full-scale invasion below, part of the same story rather than a separate one. |
| 2022-01-31 | Statement | Ukraine, Threats to International Peace and Security: Statement During Open Meeting Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-02-21 | event | Russia recognizes Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states President Vladimir Putin announces Russian recognition of the two separatist-held regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states, a move the Security Council convenes an urgent meeting on the same evening to address, and which is widely read as a precursor to the full invasion three days later. |
| 2022-02-21 | Statement | Ukraine's Invasion: Statement to the UN Security Council Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations |
| 2022-02-23 | Statement | Ukraine's Temporarily Occupied Territories: Statement During General Assembly Debate Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Njambi Kinyungu |
| 2022-02-23 | Statement | Ukraine, Letter of the Permanent Representative: Statement During Urgent Security Council Meeting Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-02-24 | event | Russia launches a full-scale invasion Russian forces invade Ukraine on multiple fronts, including from Belarus toward Kyiv, in what becomes the largest conventional war in Europe since 1945. |
| 2022-02-28 | Statement | Racial Discrimination Against Africans Fleeing Ukraine: Statement to the UN General Assembly Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations |
| 2022-02-28 | Statement | Ukraine: Statement on the Humanitarian Situation Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-03-02 | event | General Assembly adopts resolution ES-11/1 Meeting in its eleventh emergency special session, the General Assembly adopts a non-binding resolution deploring Russia's invasion and demanding the immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces, by a vote of 141 in favour, 5 against, and 35 abstentions. |
| 2022-04-13 | Event Appearance | Keynote Remarks, Virtual CEOs Dialogue on Lessons for Business from the Ukraine Crisis Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations, keynote speaker |
| 2022-04-19 | Statement | Ukraine: Statement on the Humanitarian Situation Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-05-05 | Statement | Ukraine (Protection of Civilians): Statement During Briefing Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-05-06 | Statement | Remarks at the Arria-Formula Meeting Convened by Russia on Alleged Violations of International Humanitarian Law by Ukrainian Forces Delivered by Amb. Michael Kiboino, Deputy Permanent Representative |
| 2022-06-06 | Statement | Ukraine, Sexual Violence in Conflict and Trafficking: Statement During Briefing Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-06-21 | Statement | Ukraine: Statement on the Maintenance of International Peace and Security Kenya's national statement, delivered by Ms. Jayne Toroitich, Political Coordinator |
| 2022-09-08 | Statement | Ukraine, Lethal Weapons Supplies by Western Countries: Statement During Open Briefing Kenya's national statement, delivered by Amb. Martin Kimani, Permanent Representative |
| 2022-12-06 | Statement | Ukraine: Statement on the Humanitarian Situation Kenya's national statement, delivered by Ms. Jayne Toroitich, Political Coordinator |
| 2022-12-09 | Statement | Ukraine, Lethal Weapons Supplies and Consequences: Statement During Open Briefing Kenya's national statement (speaker not specified in the source document) |
| 2026-06-01 | event | The war remains unresolved More than four years after the invasion, front lines have largely stabilized since late 2025 but the war has not ended. Trilateral US-Ukraine-Russia talks in Geneva in February 2026 and repeated, competing temporary ceasefires (Orthodox Easter in April, rival Victory Day-adjacent ceasefires in May) have not produced a settlement. In early June 2026 the Kremlin rejects a renewed call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for new talks, with Putin saying there is no point meeting unless Ukraine withdraws from Russian-occupied territory and abandons its bid to join NATO, conditions Kyiv has not accepted. |
| 2022-08-22 | Statement | Briefing to the UN Security Council: Maintenance of International Peace and Security — Promoting Common Security through Dialogue and Cooperation Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations |
| 2022-02-23 | Photograph | Late-Night Emergency Security Council Meeting on Ukraine |
| 2022-02-22 | Media Coverage | International Media Coverage of the February 2022 Ukraine Security Council Statement Third-party reporting and commentary, not Kenya's own text |