Ojārs Ēriks Kalniņš, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima, and Lolita Čigāne, Chairperson of the European Affairs Committee of the Saeima, are urging the participants of the extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council scheduled for 29 January to strongly condemn the military expansion led and implemented by Russia in Eastern Ukraine, and to clearly state that Russia is the aggressor, not a neutral mediator, in the conflict Ukraine. 

“From the perspective of international law, Putin’s Russia deserves zero respect,” underlines Kalniņš. “Deception, ignoring of agreements, behaviour in the UN Security Council and other international organisations, as well as direct involvement in military operations conducted in the Eastern Ukraine has turned Russia into an aggressor. The time has come for the international community to face the facts and admit that Putin’s Russia must be treated as part of the military conflict, not just a neutral mediator,” said the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

“The annexation of Crimea was the first obvious sign of Russia’s intent to wreak havoc and cause frictions in Ukraine as a way of ‘punishing’ Ukrainians for their strong commitment to have a closer cooperation with the EU in future,” emphasised Lolita Čigāne. “By murdering civilians in Mariupol under the disguise of separatist attacks, Russia is expanding its operations to scaring people, destabilising the situation and making the legitimate Ukrainian government appear weak,” added the Chairperson of the European Affairs Committee. 

According to chairpersons of both committees, NATO has issued several warnings about Russia’s involvement in the so-called separatist attacks in Eastern Ukraine. Russia supplies the separatists not only with ammunition, including tanks, artillery, modern rocket and air-defence systems, but also military expertise – Russian officers are directly in charge of military operations at both the commanding and operational level. Therefore, Russia’s actions in Ukraine are undoubtedly hybrid warfare, and should by no means be regarded as mediation. 






Saeima Press Service