Joint statement on the need for further sanctions against Russia
for its war of aggression against Ukraine
As Chairs of Foreign Affairs Committees of our respective Parliaments, in response to the
continued — unprovoked and unjust — war of aggression waged against Ukraine by the
Russian Federation, we:
note
the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, a sovereign country, is a gross
violation of international law, including the UN Charter;
emphasise
that since Russia's unprovoked military attack on Ukraine on February 24,
2022, twelve million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes and over five million
have been forced to flee their country;
refer
to several reports by human rights groups and international monitoring missions
about atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian civilians,
including torture, rape, murder and mass detention of civilians in so-called filtration
centres, as well as mass deportations;
underline
the immoral and illegal nature of the tactics chosen by Russia, the widespread
use of especially cruel, imprecise weapons that maim and cause special suffering - Russia,
by using this type of ammunition, violates international norms. Russian forces in Ukraine
are using internationally banned cluster munitions to sow fear and indiscriminately kill
civilians;
stress
that the deployment of Russian military personnel and weaponry at the
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant - Europe’s largest nuclear power plant — is unacceptable
and disregards the safety, security, and safeguards principles outlined in the Seven Pillars
of Nuclear Safety and Security;
note
that the presence of Russian military forces at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant
prevents the operator and the Ukrainian authorities from fulfilling their nuclear and
radiation safety obligations per international conventions,
urge
the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its military forces and all other
unauthorised personnel from the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, its immediate
surroundings, and all of Ukraine;
reiterate
our strongest condemnation of the ongoing unprovoked and unjustifiable war of
aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The Russian Federation must
immediately withdraw its troops from within Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders
and respect Ukraine’s territory and sovereignty.
call on
the Euro-Atlantic community and its partners to urgently strengthen and
implement comprehensive sanctions against the Russian Federation to stop the ability of
the Russian army to continue its military aggression in Ukraine, to increase military,
financial, humanitarian and diplomatic support to Ukraine, to unanimously support
initiatives that condemn Russia's military actions in Ukraine and calls bring the
perpetrators to justice, isolate Russia from international and regional organisations, as