Council of Europe adopts resolution in support of Ukraine. Main points
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution in support of Ukraine and with clear demands to the aggressor country russia.
Oleksii Honcharenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, President of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons in PACE, reported this on his Telegram channel on Tuesday, June 24.
Honcharenko noted that the document emphasized the non-recognition of the occupied Crimea by russia, and also separately emphasized the need for North Korea and Belarus to bear responsibility for aggression against Ukraine.
The main provisions of the resolution:
- A call to states to investigate and prosecute on the territory of their countries citizens who committed war crimes in Ukraine.
- A call to the International Criminal Court and the Prosecutor's Office to bring new charges for the torture and abduction of Ukrainian civilians, as well as for the deportation of Ukrainian children.
- Urgently establish a Special Tribunal regardless of the progress of peace negotiations.
- The register of damages and a comprehensive compensation mechanism should cover claims related to damages caused by the russian federation since February 2014, and not only since February 24, 2022.
- The political and military leadership of the russian federation, Belarus and North Korea will bear individual criminal responsibility for crimes against Ukraine, regardless of their official position, including heads of state and government.
- Redirecting frozen assets of the russian federation to help Ukraine is a legitimate countermeasure against the aggressor.
The Assembly put forward the following demands:
- release all Ukrainian prisoners of war on an "all for all" basis;
create a permanent international exchange mechanism with the participation of the Red Cross and a neutral third party.
PACE also:
- supported political negotiations for the exchange of prisoners;
- called for the creation of a special medical commission that would examine wounded and seriously ill prisoners for repatriation.
The resolution pointed to the systematic war crimes of the russian federation against Ukrainian prisoners:
- 95% of those released reported torture;
- dozens of deaths in captivity, including execution of the wounded, violence, lack of medical care;
- detention in colonies, detention centers and secret prisons - in the russian federation and in the occupied territories.
The Assembly demands:
- investigate all crimes against prisoners;
- hold the russian leadership accountable through the International Criminal Court;
- provide the Red Cross with full access to places of detention.
PACE called for sanctions against russian producer Iosif Prigozhin, singer Valeria and actor Steven Seagal, who have traveled to the occupied territories of Ukraine since 2014.
In addition, the Assembly demands the introduction of additional control over maritime transport to combat the russian shadow fleet.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on October 13, 2023, PACE recognized russia as a dictatorship and russian president putin as a dictator.
On January 26, 2024, PACE adopted three resolutions on russian aggression against Ukraine.
On January 30, the Legal Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution recognizing the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, as illegitimate.