On February, 29 European Parliament adopted resolution 2024/2526(RSP) 2024 on the need for unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after two years of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Resolution stressed thatRussia’s war against Ukraine started in 2014 with the illegal occupation of the Crimean peninsula and the subsequent occupation of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Resolution reminded that since the beginning of the full-scale war of aggression, approximately 20 000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia and Belarus or detained in the occupied territories.
Resolution stressed also that Russia is responsible for the global food security crisis, as a result of its war of aggression against Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian seaports; and that Russia has been weaponising food and hunger since the beginning of the war. Resolution added that Ukraine’s natural environment has been a specific target in the war, as Russia has been blatantly using massive environmental damage, such as burning fields and forests, illegally logging Ukrainian lumber and contaminating water and soil with chemical waste, resulting in the destruction of the country’s land and habitability, and limiting future generations’ ability to thrive and prosper; whereas the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023 is a clear example of actions by Russia that will continue to cause ecological devastation in the years to come.
In Resolution European Parliament recalled that the Russian war of aggression started with the illegal occupation of the Crimean peninsula in February 2014, and that the peninsula was turned into a military base and served as a springboard for the full-scale invasion in 2022. Resolution condemned Russia’s attempts to deny Ukraine and its people their ethnic, linguistic and historical identity by erasing signs of Ukrainian identity in the occupied territories, banning the use of the Ukrainian language and symbols, as well as the intensive policy of ‘passportisation’ and the repeated attempts by the Russian president and other officials to rewrite history;
Resolution recalled the importance of liberating and de-occupying the Crimean peninsula, which has been occupied by Russia for a decade now; recalled that inhabitants of the peninsula who are loyal to Ukraine, in particular the indigenous Crimean Tatars, face repression, arrest and torture. Resolution recalled that the Russian occupying forces have made every effort to erase Crimean Tatar heritage and the memory of Ukraine’s presence in the peninsula, and that they continue their attempts to forcibly change the demographic composition of the population, which may amount to acts of genocide as described in the Genocide Convention; Resolution supported Ukraine’s efforts to reintegrate Crimea, in particular the Crimea Platform also.
Resolution separately condemned Russia’s intention to conduct “presidential elections” in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine on 15-17 March 2024 and underlined that it will not recognise the results of these illegal “elections”; lest us remind that our Association informed all key structures of EU regarding Russia-organised scams of “Putin’s re-elections” on occupied territories Resolution called for the EU and its Member States to take further action to continue Russia’s international isolation, including with regard to Russia’s “membership” of international organisations and bodies, such as the UN Security Council.
