The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk spoke at the Ambassadors' Conference 2024
“Hundreds of resolutions, statements, resolutions and decisions of the parliaments of other countries in support of Ukraine. Military, financial, humanitarian and political support for our country in the fight against the russian aggressor. These are all the results of joint and coordinated diplomatic work of the President of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament, the Government of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, diplomatic and consular missions of Ukraine,” said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk during a meeting of heads of foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine.
He also expressed his gratitude to the representatives of Ukraine's foreign diplomatic missions for their tireless and professional work for the benefit of our country. He also noted the contribution to the development of parliamentary diplomacy as an integral part of national diplomacy.
In addition, in his speech, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine outlined ten priorities for parliamentary diplomacy in the coming period.
The first is to consolidate the international parliamentary environment around Ukraine. “During this period, we have managed to unite the international parliamentary community around Ukraine in an extremely powerful way,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk, adding that it was thanks to the ambassadors present that we managed to establish this type of mutual cooperation with the heads of other parliaments.
Secondly, it is the issue of providing support to Ukraine in the political, legal, military, technical, economic, financial and humanitarian spheres. “The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has made a lot of efforts – and the issue of military support remains in the focus of attention of all democratic countries,” said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, stressing that the top priority is to win this war.
“And this is absolutely correlated with the amount of weapons we receive from our partners,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk, adding that financial support is the second priority. He expressed his gratitude to the ambassadors present for the decisions taken by the parliaments of their countries of residence to support financial Ukraine, which is especially important now in the issue of Ukraine's energy security.
The third important priority is the implementation of the President Zelenskyi’s Peace Formula. “Ukraine, like no other country, is interested in peace today. But not peace at any cost, but peace that is just and sustainable,” Ruslan Stefanchuk stressed, adding that this peace is laid down in the Ukrainian Peace Formula. “There can be no peace in exchange for state sovereignty, this is not peace, but slavery. There can be no peace in exchange for territory, this is not peace, but annexation. There can be no peace in exchange for Ukrainian citizens, because this is not peace, but the enslavement of our citizens,” said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Fourth, strengthening the sanctions policy against russia. “The task is to ‘concrete’ every gap through which the russian federation manages to circumvent the imposed economic restrictions,” the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine stressed, expressing his gratitude to the audience for the fact that the issue of strengthening sanctions against russia is not off the agenda around the world.
The fifth priority is to develop mechanisms for punishing crimes and compensating for the damage caused. “One person must pay for this war – putin. Not the taxpayers of the United States of America, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, but this person must receive a cheque for this war. And for this we need to do a lot, parliaments are the ones who are forming compensation mechanisms,” stressed Ruslan Stefanchuk.
The sixth priority is to expand the geography of parliamentary diplomacy. “Ukraine has many partners and allies, but I believe that it is worth working with the parliaments of the Global South,” said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In particular, he said that the Parliament of Ukraine has established a large number of friendship groups with the parliaments of the Global South. Ruslan Stefanchuk expressed his gratitude to his colleagues from the Parliament who are forming this track.
The seventh priority is cooperation with the European Parliament, European and Euro-Atlantic integration. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stressed that cooperation with the European Parliament had reached a completely new level, in particular, thanks to the memorandum signed between the two institutions: “We have worked out a very large track, carried out great cooperation between the leaders and our committees to centralise the work of the Ukrainian Parliament and the European Parliament.” “We will continue to work in all directions, because our priority is to make the Ukrainian Parliament ready for integration into the European Union,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk.
The eighth priority is the development of the Crimea Platform's parliamentary track. “We cannot imagine the issue of Ukraine's integrity without the return of Crimea. Following the presidential initiative on the Crimea Platform, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine opened its own track,” said Ruslan Stefanchuk, adding that the last meeting of the parliamentary dimension of the Crimea Platform alone brought together about 70 parliaments and inter-parliamentary institutions.
The ninth priority is the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people by even more parliaments of other countries. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expressed his gratitude for the decisions already made, as the number of parliaments that have recognised the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people has more than doubled in recent years.
Finally, the tenth priority is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Ukrainian Parliament and, with the help of partners, to raise the level of professionalism of both MPs and the Secretariat staff. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stressed the importance of the visits already made, in particular by the staff of the Secretariat of the Parliament of Ukraine: “They have gained useful experience so that the Ukrainian Parliament does not repeat the mistakes made by the parliaments of other countries that also once moved towards the European Union and NATO.”
“Ukrainian parliamentary diplomacy should not only use all known formats and platforms of inter-parliamentary cooperation as efficiently as possible, but also find new ones,” the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine said, thanking all those present for implementing the new format of joint work.
During the event, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine presented the representatives of the foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine with the Certificates of Honour of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Diplomas of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Gratitude of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.