On 12 March, a meeting was held between the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities of the Assembly of the Republic.
The meeting was held via videoconference and was chaired by the committee chairs, Oleksandr Merezhko and José de Almeida Cesário.
Parliamentarians discussed the current security and humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the situation with military and civilian prisoners in the russian federation, the consequences of shelling Ukraine's energy infrastructure during the winter, as well as sanctions policy against the aggressor state and bringing those guilty of war crimes to justice, the importance of strengthening economic and military-technical assistance to Ukraine from partners, in particular for the protection of our state's airspace.
The interlocutors paid particular attention to the prospects for a ceasefire and the peace process, Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration, the development of bilateral cooperation, in particular the prospects for scientific and technical cooperation.
Committee Chairman Oleksandr Merezhko expressed his gratitude to his Portuguese colleagues for their continued comprehensive multi-party support for Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity, as well as for their support for Ukraine's associate observer status in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and our country's accession to the European Union and NATO.
The Ukrainian side was represented at the meeting by members of the Ukrainian Parliament, including Deputy Chairman of the Committee Oleksandr Kopylenko, Chairwomen of the Subcommittees Mariia Ionova and Mariana Bezuhla, Committee member Iryna Gerashchenko, and Ambassador of Ukraine to Portugal Maryna Mykhailenko.