Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine’s integration into the EU emphasized this during the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Inter-parliamentary Council. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that today members of the parliaments and politicians of the free world, including NATO member countries, should start responsible and important communication with their societies in order to help them overcome fatigue and to further support Ukraine. ‘We all must resist Russian propaganda, which focuses on raising energy prices. Russia uses energy resources as a weapon against Western societies. We have been talking about it and warning against it for years, but not everyone wanted to listen. So, now the Western states are facing it’, the Chair of the Committee said. Therefore, in her opinion, it is necessary to talk about very honest, direct, open communication with Western societies to ensure their support for Ukraine — financial, political, armed, humanitarian, all that Ukraine needs now.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze called for work on strengthening sanctions against the Russian Federation, in particular the on visa ban for Russians: ‘Last week, we in the Parliament adopted a resolution in which we called on all Schengen zone states and EU states not to limit themselves to half-measures, which we greatly appreciate — suspension of the Agreement on simplification of the visa regime with the Russian Federation, regional initiatives of Poland, the Baltic States and other countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. I hope that Finland will also join this initiative. Russians should not have the privilege to travel the free world. A complete ban on visas for Russians should be introduced, including the cancellation of those that have already been issued’.

The Chair of the Committee also emphasized that Ukraine is now in a vicious circle, where no free state is ready to provide modern tanks according to NATO standards: ‘Without these weapons, it is very difficult to regain territories. We are immensely proud of our Armed Forces, which are just now impressing the whole world by liberating Ukrainian land. But we must also be aware of the losses and the price of these victories. Therefore, we need additional support, to be able to break finally this vicious circle’. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze is sure that the time has come to make a political decision on the training of Ukrainian fighter pilots. ‘I believe that we will reach the point when Ukraine can finally receive fighter jets from NATO. And I very much hope that we, politicians of the free world, can make it possible. Because only with the involvement and support of our partners will we be able to completely liberate our land and defeat the Russian Federation, so that it will never again be able to start a new war against a free country’, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.