Ukraine faces many challenges today, and one of the main ones is the return of the temporarily occupied territories. Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov stated this during the meeting with the Speaker of the Riksdag of the Kingdom of Sweden Andreas Norlen.
“Today in our country there are many challenges that need to be overcome. But, the key one is the struggle for territorial integrity and the return of territories. We very much appreciate the position we observe from Sweden on the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and on the Ukrainian Crimea,” said the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament.
Dmytro Razumkov reminded of the importance of drawing attention to Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories.
“Democracy and the rule of law, freedom of speech and human rights are very important to us. However, unfortunately, today we can state that all this is being violated both in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and in the Crimea. Bringing attention from our international partners to such shameful cases helps people who are currently in difficult conditions in these territories,” he said.
In addition, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada noted the role of inter-parliamentary cooperation at various international platforms and stressed that the Parliaments of Ukraine and Sweden have the potential to develop cooperation. “Ukraine is very interested in deepening relations with Sweden. The Riksdag and the Verkhovna Rada have been cooperating fruitfully for many years. We have good relations, in particular at the level of friendship groups and committees,” he said.
Dmytro Razumkov also thanked Sweden for participating in the Crimea Platform and invited the Riksdag to join the parliamentary dimension of the Platform.
In turn, Speaker of the Riksdag Andreas Norlen noted that Sweden continues to take a stable position on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.