Olena Kondratiuk, "EU Parliaments countries should recognize russia as a terrorist state"
12 October 2022, 20:54
The Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratiuk took part in the meeting of women leaders of EU parliaments on the humanitarian situation and assistance to Ukrainian refugees in the EU member states.
She drew the attention of her colleagues to the severe and unprecedented humanitarian consequences of the russian invasion for Ukraine and Europe, which have manifested themselves over the past 8 months.
- 87% of them are women and children;
- 7 million Ukrainians became internally displaced persons.
The Deputy Speaker emphasized that over 6 million forcibly displaced persons have returned to Ukraine and over 7 million still remain in European countries. At the same time, 4 million Ukrainians officially registered and received temporary protection in EU countries. The largest number are in Poland — 1.4 million and Germany — about 1 million.
"It is necessary to give joint and decisive answers to the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the World War II. A very important role should be played by the European parliaments, as key decision-making centers in most EU countries," Olena Kondratiuk emohasized.
The Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine offered the participants of the meeting the following parliamentary humanitarian agenda "from her own experience of meetings with Ukrainian communities and visits to dozens of centers providing assistance to Ukrainians in the European Union":
- Deployment of a system of psychological adaptation and support for immigrants from Ukraine, especially from war zones, liberated and temporarily occupied territories;
- Equal access to the health care system and medical insurance.
"A very urgent issue is the avoidance of double taxation of Ukrainian citizens who are under temporary protection in EU countries and have already found work to feed themselves and their families," Olena Kondratiuk pointed out.
"The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also counts on the true and decisive position of each European parliament with the adoption of resolutions and decisions on the condemnation of russian aggression, illegal referendums and russian federation's attempts to annex the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Recognition of russia as a terrorist state or a sponsor of terrorism, depending on the specifics of the legislation," Olena Kondratiuk stressed.
She called on the EU countries' parliaments to increase efforts to bring war criminals of the russian federation to international criminal responsibility. According to the opinion of the Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, it is also fair to cancel visas for citizens of the terrorist state of the russian federation based on the principle of collective responsibility.
"Ukraine also urgently needs modern weapons, most importantly, air defense and anti-missile defense systems to protect and preserve the lives of Ukrainian citizens from russian terror," Olena Kondratiuk said.
The Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine emphasized that this agenda found a good response among the female speakers of the parliaments of the EU countries.
"We coordinated joint efforts to improve the position of Ukrainians in the European Union. And all those guilty of numerous war crimes and terrorist attacks against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure of Ukraine must be punished," Olena Kondratiuk commented on the results of the meeting.