Over the past year, New Zealand continued to play an active role in the global response to Russia’s ongoing aggression, working to defend relevant international rules and norms, ensure accountability, and ultimately promote an end to the war. It has done so by speaking up in international forums to counter Russian narratives and disinformation, and helping to hold Russia to account in international legal bodies, while providing practical support for Ukraine and implementing sanctions in response to Russia’s actions.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, New Zealand has provided more than $83 million in assistance. This includes $15 million to address the humanitarian impacts of the conflict through support for both refugees and those remaining in Ukraine. A special visa category has assisted family members of Ukrainian New Zealanders. We have also provided supplies, equipment, materials, logistics, and training to assist Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. More than $543 million in new assistance was committed during 2022–23.
The regulatory regime established under the Russia Sanctions Act in March 2022 has been effectively implemented, and sanctions have been progressively applied to an expanding number and range of targets. Successive rounds of sanctions — 22 to 30 June 2023 — have kept pace with Russia’s illegal actions and with the responses of our partners, with more than 1,550 individuals and entities sanctioned to 30 June 2023. Bilateral trade with Russia has plummeted since the invasion and the implementation of our sanctions regime, with exports falling by 72.8 percent and imports by 93.3 percent.
New Zealand is supporting efforts to hold Russia to account for its illegal actions through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It has provided more than $2.6 million in additional funding to the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor and its Trust Fund for Victims, to ensure legal accountability and justice for victims in Ukraine. This included through the ICC’s investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, María Lvova-Belova, for the unlawful deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. The effect of these arrest warrants has been significant, constraining President Putin’s ability to travel without risking arrest. In June 2022, New Zealand was also one of the first countries to file an intervention in Ukraine’s case against Russia in the ICJ, which challenges Russia’s spurious claims of genocide to justify its invasion. On 5 June 2023, the Court noted New Zealand’s intervention, and the case will now proceed to oral hearings later in 2023.
New Zealand has also joined other countries in condemning Russia’s war of aggression in a range of settings, including the Prime Minister’s address to the UN General Assembly in September 2022 and relevant international and regional organisations. In doing so, it has emphasised the negative implications for core principles of the international rules-based system, including respect for sovereignty and the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of other states. It has also highlighted the invasion’s devastating impacts on the people of Ukraine, including through Russia’s targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as on the international community by driving global inflation and food insecurity. These actions show that the international legal system is responding effectively, and reinforce the key principles of international law that Russia has sought to undermine.