Condemn Russia’s Ecocide and Genocide of Ukrainians, Parliament Tells World

The international community must act against Russia in response to its destruction of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam and the “ecocide and genocide of the Ukrainian people,” Ukraine’s national parliament asserted yesterday in a resolution.

In a special Sunday sitting that coincided with the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Verkhovna Rada passed resolution No.9375.

“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted an appeal to the United Nations, parliaments and governments of its member states, international organizations and their parliamentary assemblies in connection with another act of terrorism by the Russian Federation – the blowing up of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station,” the parliament’s Telegram feed said.

“The purpose of our appeal is… to condemn the crimes of ecocide and genocide of the Ukrainian people; to join the implementation of the Peace Formula proposed by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky; [and] not to become complicit in war crimes by continuing cooperation with Russia.”

“Also, on behalf of the Ukrainian people, the Parliament appeals to the G7 and the EU to impose new tough sanctions on Russia and calls on the UN General Assembly to take immediate steps to terminate Russia's membership in the UN Security Council and the UN,” it added.

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The Chair of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said “the Russian Federation has caused one of the largest man-made disasters in Europe in recent decades.”

“The ecosystems of the rivers and the Black Sea, territories and objects of the nature reserve fund and wetlands have suffered significant damage. Such actions of a state sponsor of terrorism must be severely condemned by the international community. The perpetrators must be punished,” Stefanchuk said on Telegram.

He went on to call for “intensifying efforts to establish a special tribunal to bring senior officials of the aggressor state to justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine,” as well as compensation funds for damage caused by the Russian Federation.

In other parliamentary developments, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Policy Denys Maslov said Ukraine has fulfilled the first recommendation of the European Commission on Ukraine’s status as an official candidate for EU membership.

“Namely, [we have] adopted the first reading of the draft law on the competitive selection of judges to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (No. 9322),” Maslov said.

“The Venice Commission [has now] stated that we have fully implemented its key recommendations. [Its] opinion also stated that, despite the war, the Ukrainian authorities and Ukrainian civil society demonstrate an extraordinary will to make decisive and serious changes in Ukraine,” he added.

The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It has made recommendations about potential Ukrainian reforms in meeting EU reform requirements.

In June 2022, the EU announced that Ukraine needed to meet seven reform requirements in order to join the EU:

1.     reform of the Constitutional Court;  

2. continuation of judicial reform;
3. anti-corruption measures, including the appointment of the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office;
4. anti-money laundering measures;
5. implementation of the anti-oligarchy law;
6. harmonization of audio-visual legislation with European, and;
7. change in legislation on national minorities.

Meanwhile, the Verkhovna Rada announced that Ukrainian medical and military personnel will receive free training in American and European best practices in combat and tactical medicine.

The Parliamentary Health Committee, Ukraine’s Ministries of Defense and Health, the Ukrainian Border Service, and the Ukrainian National Guard have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the US NGO Global Response Medicine.

The MoU aims to improve the quality of tactical medicine in Ukraine by training Ukrainian medical workers and implementing American and European protocols for treating traumatized and injured personnel into Ukraine’s health system.

“The US Army has experience in war-time conflict. American medics will teach tactical medicine which is based on real combat and is effective using the ‘train the trainer’ approach,” the Chair of the Parliamentary Health Committee said on Telegram.