Russia returns to PACE, Ukraine leaves in protest
The Ukrainian delegation left the conference hall of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in a sign of protest against the Russian delegation’s reinstatement. Iryna Herashchenko, First Deputy Chairperson of Ukraine’s Parliament and a member of her country’s PACE delegation, wrote about the decision on Facebook.
“The Ukrainian delegation has appealed the privileges of the Russian killers. The hearings on their privileges are on Thursday. Before this, we cannot sit in the same hall as the killers. We left the assembly hall and told the Russians on camera that they are killers,” she wrote.
Several representatives of Georgia, the Baltic states, and other countries also left the hall with the Ukrainian delegation, she noted.
According to Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, the Ukrainian delegation will return to the assembly hall only during the sessions to consider the complaint against and impose sanctions on the Russian delegation. He also noted that the delegation has asked Ukraine’s parliament to urgently consider the suspension of its participation in the PACE.
On the evening of 24 June, the PACE voted to reinstate the Russian delegation in the Council of Europe. The Ukrainian delegation later said that it might suspend its involvement in the organization.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also voiced his disappointment in the assembly’s decision to reinstate the Russian delegation.