The Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze and the Member of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU Petro Poroshenko met with the Group of Friends of Ukraine in the European Parliament. The group is headed by the Lithuanian MEP Petras Austrevicius. The meeting was also attended by the MEPs from different countries.
“On the issue of Ukraine, they emphasize that their party differences are disappearing. They are united around the need to help Ukraine, around counteracting the russian federation, and around the imposition of sanctions,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said after the meeting. According to the Chairperson of the Committee, this unity of the European Parliament on Ukraine is confirmed by the unanimous vote in favor of the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the punishment of russia, as well as by the great work of MEPs in the countries they represent to provide Ukraine with additional weapons, political and financial support from the European Union.”
We have a big, serious backbone here. We thanked the European Parliament for always being a leader in the clarity of its position on Ukraine, for their lobbying for the candidate status for Ukraine,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.
She said that they talked about providing Ukraine with even more weapons, European integration progress and further financial support for Ukraine. They talked about isolating russia, finding a mechanism to confiscate frozen funds from both the russian state reserve and russian oligarchs. They also talked about additional restrictions and pressure that should be put on Iran to prevent russia from obtaining additional weapons to attack Ukrainian citizens.
The Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko spoke about defining the future of peace and that the future peace must necessarily include a guarantee of Ukraine’s membership in both NATO and the European Union. “Peace is possible only when there is a stable long-term security guaranteed for the European continent,” said Petro Poroshenko. And for this purpose, a lot of efforts must be made to finally change the rhetoric from that of helping Ukraine as long as it is needed to the rhetoric of helping Ukraine until it is victorious.
“In this context, everyone is impressed by the formula of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has repeatedly stated publicly that the best tool for peace is weapons for Ukraine,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
The meeting also touched upon the critical importance of preserving unity in Ukrainian society and Ukrainian politics. “We have a cruel and insidious enemy, the russian federation. And we still have a lot to do to win, and this unity is important both here in the European Union and in the transatlantic dialogue, and of course in Ukraine,” said the Committee Chair.
According to her, there is an understanding that individual countries need to be worked with in depth in order to finally get rid of the fear of confronting russia and gain the same courage that Ukrainian society and the Armed Forces are demonstrating today.
“One of the members of the European Parliament said a very good phrase: we have been discussing the defense forces of the European Union for a long time, and now we see that we have a European army – the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In my opinion, this is an extremely important realization that should provide additional support to us as a country and to our defenders,” the Committee Chair emphasized.
She also reminded that russia is trying to undermine public opinion in the European Union and the rest of the free world so that this opinion changes not in favor of Ukraine. “We understand how much politicians in democracies look back at public opinion, but now is the time to show leadership and lead this public opinion, not just to catch the wave that prevails today,” summarized Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.