Statement by the Russian Federation during the 2025 session of the ITU Council

Statement by the Russian Federation during the 2025 session of the ITU Council on the agenda item "Update on the implementation of ITU Council Resolution 1408 on assistance and support to Ukraine for rebuilding their telecommunication sector"

(June 25, 2025, Geneva) 

The Russian Federation notes that many ITU Member States are facing problems with the functioning of the telecommunication sector and ICT, as was repeatedly stated at the Council session in 2024. We consider excessive focus on the implementation of ITU Council Resolution 1408 as unfounded. The Russian Federation does not bind itself to the provisions of this Resolution.

We draw attention of the Secretary-General of the Union, as the author of this report, to the need for strict adherence to the principles of competence, impartiality and independence when preparing documents on such sensitive topics.

The ITU is not authorized to discuss issues of territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, nor to define the situation in Ukraine as a "war" and certain territories as "occupied", to indicate responsible persons, or to qualify the actions of states as acts of aggression.

As for the issue of admitting the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to the Russian Federation, the relevant comprehensive explanations were given by the Russian Federation during the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in 2022 and were included in its Final Acts.

With regard to the issue of radio interference to satellite systems, which arose during the current session of the ITU Council, we would like to emphasize the following. The Russian Federation experiences serious interference effects on its satellite networks from Ukraine (as an example is deliberate harmful interference to the “Yamal” spacecraft, which has persisted from the end of March 2022 to the present.). Moreover, dual-use space communication systems operated by Western countries are being extensively utilized by Ukraine for military purposes. This includes the Starlink system, the telecommunication systems Intelsat, Eutelsat, Hispasat, SES, Kymeta and many others. The Russian Federation reserves the right to respond to such situations in accordance with the ITU Charter.