The second day of the visit of the COSAC delegation (a platform for interaction between the European affairs committees of the parliaments of EU countries) to Ukraine began with a massive night attack by russia. The European guests spent a sleepless night under rocket and drone fire, together with millions of Ukrainians.
"This night-time attack really shocked our mates, and obviously kept them awake at night, just like it did all of us. As a result, we had to adjust how and when we could start working," said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, who initiated this visit by the COSAC delegation to Ukraine.
In the morning, MEPs paid tribute to the victims of the residential building in Kyiv, where a russian missile took the life of a 12-year-old girl. This tragedy was shocking and deeply moving. It was a painful reminder that millions of people in Ukraine, families and children, suffer from russian terror every day.
COSAC parliamentarians also visited the site of a destroyed building in the capital, which was hit by a russian missile and where 23 people died. They also travelled to the Kyiv region – the village of Moshchun and the town of Bucha – places that experienced the horrors of the russian occupation in March 2022. There, the MPs heard testimonies about the resistance of Ukrainians at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and about the atrocities committed by the occupiers against civilians. The delegation members also paid tribute to the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred on Independence Square.
Together with Ukrainian MPs, the COSAC committee chairs visited critical infrastructure facilities, which are also targets of russia. ‘We visited the Trypilska thermal power plant and obviously talked about our needs to restore energy capacities and prepare for winter,’ said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.
According to the Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU, the second day was emotionally difficult for the European guests. ‘It gave our European colleagues a deeper understanding of the scale of russia's crimes, but also provided more arguments for action so that EU states and institutions would be even more active in supporting Ukraine,’ concluded Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.