The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk met with the President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, Annita Demetriou
23 April 2023, 22:00
A number of bilateral meetings are scheduled during the visit. Today, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine met with his counterpart, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, Annita Demetriou.
He expressed his sincere gratitude for the support Ukraine receives from the Republic of Cyprus and its Parliament and called for strengthening and deepening such assistance, which is important for our country’s victory over russian aggression.
In particular, he underlined the high level of inter-parliamentary cooperation in supporting Ukraine and expressed hope for the continuation of important cooperation at the level of speakers and leadership, as well as at the level of parliamentary staffs.
During the meeting, the parties also touched upon issues that are important for Ukraine in its current struggle against the russian invader and in our European and Euro-Atlantic perspectives.
In particular, the speakers discussed the implementation of the peace formula of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Cyprus’ support for its individual points; sanctions policy, where the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament called on the Republic to support appropriate restrictions against russian nuclear energy and rosatom and to continue to impose sanctions at the national level on russian business and assets; the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine and the active participation of the Republic of Cyprus in it; Ukraine’s progress towards the EU and NATO.
The parties also touched upon the issue of justice in this unprovoked war. Ruslan Stefanchuk called on Cyprus to join the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of russian aggression against Ukraine. According to him, one of the components of such legal responsibility of the russian federation is the issue of punishing the aggressor for the crime of genocide, which russia is committing today during the aggression. He also called on the Cypriot Parliament to recognise the Holodomor of 1932-33 as genocide of the Ukrainian people and to adopt a resolution.
In addition, the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament once again thanked the President for her active participation in the Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimean Platform in Zagreb and invited her to attend the Second Parliamentary Summit, which will be held this October in Prague.
Finally, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine invited his Cypriot counterpart to visit Ukraine and expressed confidence that such a visit would contribute to the intensification of the interparliamentary dialogue between our countries.
In her turn, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus, Annita Demetriou, stressed that the Republic of Cyprus would continue to support Ukraine until this unjust war is over.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to what is happening in Ukraine. We want peace and stability for our common home, which is the EU and the world at large. Ukrainians are defending our values and our principles. And this, among other things, is the reason why we fully support Ukraine’s accession to the EU,” said Annita Demetriou.
She assured her Ukrainian counterpart that the Republic of Cyprus, together with its European partners, will always oppose russian or any aggression that disregards the basic principles of international law. That is why, she emphasised, “we will not stop until we are able to establish peace and security on the European continent in particular”.
Annita Demetriou also thanked for the invitation to visit Ukraine and assured that her visit would be “an additional step to show that despite the fact that Cyprus is a small EU member state, we loudly declare our support for Ukraine”.