Verkhovna Rada delegation taking part in work of 62nd annual session of NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Istanbul

Information Department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat
21 November 2016, 14:42

The delegation of the Ukrainian Parliament formed of members of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Friz (the head of the delegation), Yu.Bereza, O.Belkova, M.Nayem and deputy head of the Secretariat of the Committee on European Integration I.Mysyk (the secretary of the delegation) is taking part in the work of the 62nd annual session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Istanbul (the Republic of Turkey). Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy, also takes part in the session.

Leadership of the Alliance as intergovernmental organizations for security, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the Republic of Turkey and independent experts will take floor before the participants in the session.

Andriy Parubiy addressed the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly as to two dimensions of the conflict in Ukraine. He noted that thanks to that interparliamentary format there is an opportunity to exchange opinions to be the ground for intergovernmental decisions.

The program of four-day meetings is focused on discussing key issues of security agenda for NATO member countries and their partners. A total of 16 issue-related reports and six resolutions are expected to be elaborated as a result of the session's work.

NATO once again confirmed its commitment to supporting Ukraine in its fight against unlawful and aggressive actions of the Russian Federation and confirmed readiness to provide further support of the kind.

Secretary General of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly David Hobbs said this at a meeting with the head of the Ukrainian Delegation Iryna Friz.

Mr. Hobbs noted that the position of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly regarding further support to Ukraine in its fight against unlawful and aggressive actions of Russia and Russia-supported militants is unchanged.

Against this background, the issue of holding a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council in one of the eastern regions of Ukraine in the short term was discussed.

"Russia continues to ignore the Minsk II requirement to withdraw foreign troops from Eastern Ukraine. There is ample evidence of the presence of Russian troops and weapon systems in Donbass; the capture of Russian POWs by Ukrainian forces; NATO satellite imagery; observations by Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Philip Mark Breedlove to the statement by Alexander Hug, deputy chief of OSCE SMM, that OSCE monitors have observed evidence of Russian soldiers and weapons in the area since the beginning of the conflict. Russian democratic activists, such as Lev Shlosberg and Boris Nemtsov, have conducted thorough investigations of the participation of Russian soldiers in the fighting in Ukraine. Even President Vladimir Putin caused a stir when he admitted, in a press conference in December 2015, that Moscow “never said there were not people there [in Ukraine] who carried out certain tasks including in the military sphere” (Reuters, 2015). Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, warned members of the NATO PA to make no mistake: Russia is running the military operation in eastern Ukraine." (Reuters, 2015).

Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, warned members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from making a mistake: Russia is engaged in a military operation in the east of Ukraine.

"Today, Ukraine finds itself confronted with an unenviable task: to fulfill the promises of Euromaidan while trying to rebuff Russia’s aggression. The country’s economy is in shambles and kept afloat thanks only to international financial injections. Yet, Kyiv was forced to increase its defence spending by 16% this year. The ambitious reform process is hampered by resistance from lower levels of bureaucracy and oligarchs. At the same time, the prospects of a ceasefire in Donbass are hazy. On top of that, the country has recently gone through a major political crisis and infighting. The international context is not favourable either as Ukraine‘s Euro-Atlantic partners are preoccupied with Daesh1 and related terrorist threats as well as with the migration/refugee crisis, while Moscow expects concessions vis-a-vis sanctions as a reward for joining the anti-Daesh efforts. The results of the non-binding referendum in the Netherlands (61% against the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, with a 32% turnout) have created additional obstacles for the country’s aspirations to join the EU," says the report "UKRAINE’S TWO WARS: PROTECTING INDEPENDENCE AND IMPLEMENTING REAL REFORMS" on the hearings of the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security NATO Parliamentary Assembly.