Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday called on the parliaments of all NATO countries to declare Russia a “terrorist state” and called for more air defense and anti-missile systems.
Zelensky defended, in a videoconference intervention at the 68th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, in Madrid, that Russia is carrying out a “genocidal policy” in Ukraine, which targets the civilian population or the supply of energy and water, with effects similar to those of weapons of mass destruction.
For this reason, the Ukrainian president asked the parliaments of the 30 NATO countries to declare Russia a “terrorist state”, as Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and the Czech Republic have already done.
Zelensky also called for the maintenance and reinforcement of sanctions against Russia for “the terror” it is causing to the Ukrainians, and to help “increase the protection” of Ukraine, that is, more air defense and anti-missile systems, “in quantity and sufficient quality”.
The Ukrainian president reiterated Ukraine’s willingness to join NATO and the European Union (EU), at a time when it defends “on the battlefield” the values of democracy, the rule of law and freedom shared by both organizations, calling for to all the approximately 300 deputies present at the Madrid meeting to support kyiv’s accession candidacies.
Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the EU would guarantee peace and security for all member states of the two organizations, he added.
“None of our nations are interested in dangerous incidents at nuclear power plants and all want to be sure to protect their populations and their infrastructure from missile attacks,” Zelensky said, according to simultaneous translations of his remarks from Ukrainian to English and To Spanish. .
The Ukrainian president also called for the creation of a special international court to investigate and try “Russian aggression” against Ukraine.
The president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, US congressman Gerard E. Connolly, said, addressing Zelensky, that this body approved a resolution at this meeting in Madrid to defend the creation of this special court requested by the Ukrainian authorities, with the purpose of investigating and prosecuting “Russian aggression” against Ukraine “and all related war crimes.”
Ukraine’s Attorney General Andriy Kostin said this Saturday, also in a speech at this 68th NATO parliamentary assembly, that 47,000 possible war crimes committed by Russia have been registered in the country since the beginning of the Russian military attack, the past February 24.
The prosecutor said that the Ukrainian authorities, with the support of experts and international entities, have so far “47,000 incidents registered as war crimes”, which include torture, murder, sexual assault or forced displacement and large-scale population transport, bound for what could be considered “concentration camps”.
Andriy Kostin said there are 8,000 non-military dead, including 400 children, identified so far. This year’s session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military alliance between European and North American countries) ended today, in Madrid, and Ukraine was at the center of the agenda.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is made up of 269 deputies from the 30 Alliance countries and another 100 members from partner states, who unanimously declared their support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s military attack.
The assembly is chaired by one of its deputies, who assumes a two-year term. French Senator Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam was elected today as the new president, replacing Gerard E. Connolly.
Source: TSF
