This was stated by the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksandr Korniienko during a meeting with representatives of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
At the beginning of the meeting, Oleksandr Korniienko thanked his British colleagues for all the decisions for Ukraine and consistent all-party support. He stressed that Ukraine appreciates the recognition by the House of Commons of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people and expressed hope that the House of Lords would follow suit.
He also stressed that this visit is important at the beginning of the political season, as the further agenda of cooperation between our parliaments will determine the next steps to end the war and the priority issues for Ukraine.
During the talks, the parties focused on several important points of further cooperation between the countries and the parliaments in particular.
The participants raised the issue of military support for Ukraine. Oleksandr Korniienko spoke about the situation on the battlefield and called on his British colleagues to increase military support for Ukraine to liberate all the occupied territories, and for this we need more military assistance, in particular, modern aviation.
“Our soldiers are liberating every street, house, and small village. This is a difficult story. But with your support, it can be faster,” Oleksandr Korniienko stressed. In this context, he also called on the UK to help strengthen our air and missile defences to protect peaceful cities and civilians from russia’s missile terror, including port infrastructure for the grain corridor.
The interlocutors also discussed the UK’s support for the implementation of the President Zelenskyi’s peace initiative, the Peace Formula, which is based on the principles of international law and justice.
In addition, the participants of the meeting discussed the issue of russia’s responsibility for the crimes committed during this brutal war. The First Deputy Speaker stressed that Ukraine will continue to strengthen its efforts to establish a special tribunal for all russian war criminals and the top russian leadership in particular. He also called on his British colleagues to assist in engaging countries that are not yet sufficiently supportive of Ukraine in this process. Oleksandr Korniienko also noted that Ukraine is actively working on developing a compensation mechanism to channel the seized russian assets to rebuild Ukraine.
The meeting also focused on Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic perspective. Oleksandr Korniienko stressed that today Ukraine enjoys the highest level of support from NATO in the history of our relations and “it is our country’s membership in NATO that is a long-term guarantee of security for us and for the entire European continent”. He thanked his British colleagues for their steadfast and strong support for our Euro-Atlantic aspirations and called for a coalition to support Ukraine in NATO.
“Ukraine must win and restore its territorial integrity, and russia must bear full responsibility for its unprovoked aggression,” the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine summed up the meeting.
The meeting was also attended by the MPs Dmytro Natalukha, the Chairman of the Committee on Economic Development and Co-Chairman of the Parliamentary Group on Interparliamentary Relations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Lesia Zaburanna, a member of the Friendship Group.
