President of the Riigikogu and his Italian counterpart discussed Russia’s aggression against Ukraine

NordenBladet —

Today, President of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) Jüri Ratas held a video conference with Roberto Fico, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. They discussed Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the measures to be taken to stop it.

Ratas said that he had been in touch with his Ukrainian counterpart, who had shared mobile phone videos of Russia’s attacks on Kharkiv today, where dozens of people had been killed. “This is a horrible sight,” Ratas added. “These are the most terrible times in Europe after World War II.”

“In the current situation, the most important thing is to support Ukraine in every way and to stay united,” Ratas said. “I am happy to see that the members of the European Union and NATO are of one mind and the Euro-Atlantic cooperation is functioning. The United States are with us today, as well as Australia and Japan, who have joined the sanctions.”

Ratas also told his Italian counterpart about yesterday’s meeting of the Speakers of the Parliaments of the Baltic States and Sweden in Riga and assured that Ukraine had the strong support of all countries. He pointed out that Sweden, who had been a neutral country for a long time, had also decided to support Ukraine with military assistance.

“We have to stay united,” Ratas stated, and added that it was necessary to jointly request suspension of Russia’s membership in international organisations. He also underlined that the ongoing war was not a war of the Russian people, but Putin’s war. Incitement of conflicts between nations must be strictly avoided, Ratas said.  

The President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy fully agreed with everything that was said and emphasised on his part that, in the present circumstances, unity was especially important. He also thinks that the people of Russia do not want war. This war is led and the decisions are made by a small group of the power elite.

Ratas and Fico jointly affirmed that Ukraine was an independent and sovereign state whose territorial integrity was non-negotiable, and the allies supported Ukraine.

Ratas also gave an overview of Estonia’s contribution in supporting Ukraine and noted that Estonia had given both military assistance and humanitarian aid and was receiving war refugees.

The President of the Riigikogu also thanked Italy for their contribution to defending the air space of the Baltic Sea region and affirmed that Estonia and Italy had excellent bilateral relations and their cooperation in NATO was strong as well.

Source: Parliament of Estonia