The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Andriy Parubiy commended highly the work of Ukraine’s permanent deputation to PACE and supported the decision to hold up its participation in the current session of the assembly. "Our delegates have fought like lions over recent years. It is true and we must give them their due," Andriy Parubiy said at a briefing on Wednesday, June 26.
"We can really see now a very dangerous precedent and risky decision, but this decision has its own intrinsic logic," said the head of parliament, and then explained: "When Ukraine fought and demonstrated its preparedness to defend its national interests European countries were forced to side with Ukraine in the fight against the Russian aggressor”.
However, as A.Parubiy noticed, there were countries that pushed ahead a non-resistance sentiment, they said "you have to come to an agreement, stop shooting, coordinate your positions for ending the aggression and so on". In his opinion, it has become kind of impetus for the Russian return decision by many European countries.
A.Parubiy also reminded that many representatives of European countries explained their statements by protecting interests of their national businesses. "Many of them spoke making no secret: if Ukraine stops fighting, why should we impair our own business and our own interests?" the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada stated.
The Ukrainian delegation produced an array of important initiatives, in particular on the debarment of Russian election observers to Ukraine. Andriy Parubiy all upheld them and stated that he considered it to be inherently correct.
The head of parliament also informed that he would initiate a special parliamentary meeting on the PACE situation in the very near future.