Andriy Parubiy: Any coddling with aggressor encourages more aggressive actions
15 September 2016, 17:25
Dear President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Dear colleagues,
I'd like to express my gratitude to President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Pedro Agramunt for convening this meeting and I am glad to be among my colleagues to discuss the most important problems of Europe, including the migration crisis.
Today I will talk about the situation with internally displaced persons in Ukraine.
Dear colleagues,
Over the last two years, Ukraine has suffered from the Russian aggression. As a result a total of 1,700,000 internally displaced persons were registered as at September 11, 2016.
You just try to image the scale of our problems. The figure is just 100,000 people less than the total number of refugees in all the EU countries. Our country alone has to sustain the same pressure as all the EU countries together.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted the law on protection of rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons. A total of 900,493 families currently receive targeted monetary aid. A total of 377,000 people have received medical assistance. Thousands of students from the universities located in the temporarily occupied territories have been transferred to Ukrainian higher education establishments having vacant seats.
In compliance with the data provided by the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders — Frontex, in 2015, 1,822,260 refugees arrived in the EU. Of them only 1,920 people or 0.1% of the total number of refugees arrived in the EU through the total of 6,000 kilometers of the Europe's eastern border. Therefore, despite the avalanche of internally displaced persons in our country, Ukraine is of no migration risk for Europe. We have not become a refugee transit country for Europe. The agreement on readmission with the European Union works effectively. Ukraine fulfills its obligations. Thus, there are no obstacles for providing Ukraine with visa-free regime.
At the same time, we should not fight against the consequences of the migration crisis only, but have to fight against its reasons. The aggression of Russia against Ukraine, its military operation in Syria and Russia-supported attempts to destabilize Europe have led to the situation that turned Russia from an energy carrier exporter into the exporter of aggression.
It stands to mention that the Ukrainian tragedy has its attributes. The repressions are underway against the entire people — the Crimean Tatars. They are made abandon their motherland and become political migrants for the second time over the last century. The Kremlin continues its Stalin-style repressions against entire peoples. This is a huge challenge for us all. Can we close our eyes to this? Can we close our eyes to the election to the State Duma [the Parliament of Russia] in the territory of Crimea? I believe we must not!
I consider unacceptable the participation of representatives of Russia in the work of the conference as the country is an accomplice in the crime not only against Ukraine but against the whole world that abides by the supremacy of law.
As the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, I believe that any coddling with the aggressor encourages it for more aggressive actions. Russia has fulfilled none of the resolutions approved by this Assembly over the last two years in response to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Return of Russia to this hall will be a historic mistake and have two dramatic outcomes: it will encourage the aggressor and undermine the authority of the Assembly. Recalling tragic European history and people's lives taken by the Europe's building, we all have to do our best to avoid making that mistake.
At the end of my speech, I would like to thank all our colleagues for their support for Ukraine. Your every step, your every word help us protect freedom and democracy, protect human rights and tackle the problems of the internally displaced persons. Unity and concordance is our common force that is making and will always make Europe stronger. Thank you for your attention.
Reference information: Delegations from 47 countries take part in the European Conference of Presidents of Parliaments.