The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) voted on June 24 to remain sanctions against Russian delegation until January 2016, MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Permanent Delegation to PACE, Vadym Ariev, has said.
“Eleven [votes] – against, 128 [votes] – in favor [of sanctions measures]. PACE prolonged sanctions against Russia. They will work until the end of the year, but the powers [of the delegation] haven’t but cancelled – the last chance. A new reconsideration ahead in 2016,” Ariev wrote on his Facebook page on June 24.
“Our delegation focused on a key statement – none of Minsk accords’ provisions implemented, the same concerns the provisions of the PACE’s resolution on Russia. We talked about human rights violations in annexed Crimea, about Russian weapons’ destroying Ukrainian populated areas, about facts of Russian army’s active units’ presence in Donbas and of course Kremlin’s support of Crimea in terms of funding, [supplying] arms and [helping] in any other ways. I talked about the lack of progress in the work of Minsk subgroups because of the Russia’s destructive position and their puppets, and the blockade of Ukraine’s constructive suggestion, about 11 Ukrainians kept in Russian prisons,” another MP from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko Iryna Heraschenko said.
“Russia must be punished and any talks of the necessity of a dialogue without implementing the Minsk agreements are connivance at the aggressor and turning a blind eye to the war started by Russia,” Heraschenko said.
