Foreign Affairs Committee: Ukraine asks for international assistance to fight Russia’s aggression

NordenBladet —

Today, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) held a video meeting with the colleagues from the Committee on Matters of Foreign Policy and Inter-parliamentary Cooperation of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), who told them about the current situation in the country and asked for humanitarian aid, support for the evacuation of civilians and international support for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukrainian cities.

Chair of the Committee on Matters of Foreign Policy and Inter-parliamentary Cooperation Oleksandr Merezhko and member of the Committee Mariia Ionova gave the Foreign Affairs Committee an overview of the situation in Ukraine. They said that Ukraine needed the support of the countries of the European Union, NATO and the United Nations in order to close the airspace above the larger cities of Ukraine and asked for the diplomatic support of all countries to achieve that.

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Marko Mihkelson emphasised that the international assistance to Ukraine was growing by the hour. “This is something nobody could have imagined only 10 days ago, but now the pressure is increasing, the situation is changing every hour and more supporters are coming. It is also to be hoped that this will have an impact on international organisations such as the Red Cross, which at the moment has not been able to provide humanitarian assistance in the cities bombed by Russia,” Mihkelson said.

According to Mihkelson, the members of the Committee were told that the Russian army had surrounded several cities, such as Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kherson, Mariupol, and had started indiscriminate bombing of residential areas. “People are on the streets and shout at the soldiers that these are their streets, this is their city, go away,” he referred to the words of Ionova.

Mihkelson said that hearing his Ukrainian colleagues describe Russia’s war crimes had been dramatic, but at the same time the Ukrainian army and people were full of fighting spirit and would not surrender.

“Our Ukrainian colleagues asked to put pressure on all European countries not to sell fuel to Russia,” Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Mihhail Lotman said. He added that at the same time Ukraine needed fuel itself for the evacuation of civilian population, distribution of humanitarian aid and transporting weapons to the regions where military activities take place.

Lotman said that the Ukrainians asked for help in fighting against Russia’s propaganda. They had also reported that Russia was blackmailing Europe with the threat of damage to nuclear power plants.

According to Mihkelson, the Ukrainian colleagues said that it would be impossible for Putin to come to power in Ukraine because the Ukrainian people are full of fighting spirit, and it would take millions of Russian troops to gain permanent control over Ukraine.

The Ukrainian parliamentarians asked to insert influence on the Red Cross and the OSCE to provide security and help evacuate children and women from the cities. Presently, the Red Cross has refused to work in the regions that are being bombed. Getting medicines and humanitarian aid to the cities where they are needed is of critical importance. There are supplies in the western part of Ukraine, but they cannot be delivered.

The members of the Foreign Affairs Committee who participated in the meeting underlined that the Western countries were working to ensure that no war crime would go unpunished. “At the political level, we are active in both the EU and NATO to maintain unity and to support Ukraine,” Mihkelson assured. “We completely understand the situation of Ukraine. Russia is fighting against global peace by all means possible,” Mihkelson said, and added, “In this hopeless war, Putin’s regime will never win.”

Source: Parliament of Estonia