The Chair of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU held an online meeting with Irish colleagues, the members of the Parliamentary Committee on EU Affairs. She thanked Ireland for the warm welcome of Ukrainians fleeing the war, noting that Ireland's population had grown by 1% since it accepted Ukrainian refugees. Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze expressed hope that after the victory of Ukraine, its citizens would be able to return home.

She noted that currently no place is absolutely safe in Ukraine: “Ukrainians are being shelled, tortured, abducted and deported to Russia. I call this war “a war of world and anti-world”, “a war of humanity and anti-humanity””.

The Chair of the Committee noted that, unfortunately, in the West now there are calls for Ukraine to make concessions to Russia, giving up its interests and territories. In her opinion, this does not correspond to the values declared by the free world: “We are all now being tested on how strong our principles, beliefs and values are. We must do everything we can to ensure that the unity of the Western world is not challenged or diminished”.

According to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, 91% of Ukrainians support Ukraine's accession to the European Union. That is why it is very important that in June Ukraine receives a positive decision from the EU on granting it the status of a candidate for accession.  “We are extremely grateful to Ireland for supporting Ukraine in perusing this goal. But I want to ask you to reach out to those European leaders and politicians who are still skeptical about giving Ukraine this status. Unfortunately, there is no unity here. This political decision must be made now. Because it will support the Ukrainian people and will be a signal that we will be able to transform our country in line with the European model. Your voices and your arguments can be defining in this process”, the Chair of the Committee said.

“We appeal to all countries to provide us with heavy weapons, because time matters, and the time means saved lives of civilians”, she added.

As for sanctions, the Committee Chair noted that it is hard for Ukrainians to see that the EU is still unable to adopt the 6th package of sanctions against Russia: “It is still postponed. Some European countries violate the basic principle on which the EU is based on, the principle of solidarity. In fact, they are taking other counties hostage, preventing them from imposing an embargo on Russian oil and disconnecting the rest of Russia's banks from the SWIFT system”. As long as Russia has such loopholes in sanctions it will have the resources to finance the war in Ukraine, the Chair of the Committee said.
According to Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Russia should be defeated and deprived of the opportunity to wage war against anyone in the free world. And the West should do its best to prevent Russia from ever rising again.

The Chair of the Committee also noted that due to Russia's war against Ukraine, the world is facing the threat of a food crisis. 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain are now stuck and cannot be exported due to Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports. Ukraine has fed more than 400 million people worldwide each year. “Unfortunately, we now lack the instruments to export our products in full. And even with those EU support mechanisms, Ukraine will only be able to sell 30% of its exports. The new harvest will be in late July. This will mean that people in North Africa and the Middle East may face a real famine. This is another important task that not only Ukraine but also the world needs to solve”, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

She thanked Ireland for banning Russian ships from accessing Irish ports, admitting that it's time for a new solution — to ban all ships carrying Russian goods.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze also thanked Ireland for asking the International Criminal Court to investigate Russia's war crimes in Ukraine:  “Unfortunately, new “Buchas” are appearing in the territories occupied by the so-called Russian army. I can't even call them an army, because they violated all possible international conventions and rules of warfare. We must do everything possible to ensure that Russia is punished for crimes against humanity. A special tribunal must be set up for this purpose, and this requires the efforts of the world community. Here we also count on the support of Ireland”, the Chair of the Committee said.