27 June 2017, 10:56
The First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko, at free debates during the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session, cast a public spotlight on Russia, who ‘doesn’t give a damn for law of nations and doesn’t carry out any of its commitments under the Minsk accords’.
She informed the European parliamentarians of a tense security, humanitarian and environmental situation in Donbas.
Iryna Herashchenko, a representative of the TCG’s humanitarian subgroup, stressed again that the Russian Federation did not meet its engagements according to the Minsk agreements and put a slight upon the PACE’s resolutions exacting from Russia an immediate release of hostages and political prisoners. Particular attention was drawn to the fact that the number of Ukrainians illegally seized in the occupied part of Donbas has been steadily increasing. It amounts today to 132 persons.
The First Vice-Speaker informed those in attendance of multiple deliberate breaches of the ‘silence regime’ by the Russian and SRDLO’s militants through a heavy shelling resulting in just unspeakable environmental consequences to the region. ‘Perhaps every single day the eastern Ukraine undergoes a massive bombing demolishing the local infrastructure, industrial enterprises, power and water supply lines,’ stated I.Herashchenko. If the central pump station were ruined, 600 000 locals would be deprived of water.
Another painful problem
there is a number of submerged mines in Donbas, admission to which the SRDLO’s
representatives constantly refuse to allow to international pump-out experts. ‘We
desperately appeal to the countries of Europe to pay a close attention to the
Donbas environmental problem, and demand from the blockers to grant the access
to monitoring missions’ representatives throughout the occupied territories,’ laid
I.Herashchenko a particular stress on the statement.
In the PACE free debates, the Ukrainian side voiced its high hopes that the Ukraine’s initiative aimed at the would-be PACE peacekeeping mission to Donbas, will be openly backed by the European partners. It would help promote demilitarization and de-occupation of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine’s East.