We publish here in full the text of a petition from the Patriots of Ukraine Worldwide addressed to the Heads of State and Governments of the EU Member States.
For the seventh year in a row, Ukraine and Ukrainians have been fighting at the forefront of international efforts to repel Russian armed aggression and the hybrid war unleashed by Putin’s regime against Europe, European and Euro-Atlantic values, and democratic societies around the world.
More than 13,000 people have already fallen victim to the Russian war against Ukraine, including 298 passengers on the MH17 flight shot down by Russian terrorist forces in Donbass.
Russia continues to occupy and colonise Ukrainian Crimea. Violent repressions against Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians have been launched on the peninsula, Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian identities and national cultures are being suppressed, and human rights and international law are being violated.
Due to this Russian aggression, more than 1.4 million people were forced to leave their homes and move from the temporarily occupied areas in Donetsk and Lugansk regions, and Crimea.
Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens are illegally imprisoned and detained in Russia, Crimea, and ORDLO (Temporarily occupied and uncontrolled territories of Ukraine). Many of them are being tortured and stay in appalling prison conditions.
Russia has failed to fulfill any of its international obligations under the Minsk Agreements, the conclusions of the Normandy format meetings, and the resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The Kremlin ignores UN General Assembly resolutions reaffirming Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, including without question the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The aggressive Putin regime does not abandon its intentions to destroy the European Union and NATO, to weaken European and Euro-Atlantic unity, and to undermine the confidence of Western societies in national governments.
We should point out that, on orders from the Kremlin, Russian special services used chemical weapons in Europe for the first time since World War II.
Russia promotes radical sentiments of nationalism, populism, and racial intolerance in Europe and the United States.
All of the above is especially vile and insidious in the context of a crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
We, activists of the Patriots of Ukraine Worldwide Movement, as well as thousands of friends of Ukraine around the world call on EU heads of state and government, leaders of all democracies and societies not to ease political and economic pressure on the Russian Federation in order to force the aggressor to stop the war, to get away from Ukraine, to end interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states (including democratic elections), to restore respect for international law.
As far as we know, during a video conference of the European Council on June 19, the EU leaders will consider a political decision to continue economic sectoral restrictive measures against Russia in response to the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine.
We call on European leaders, despite any clumsy, baseless but insidious attempts by the Kremlin to bargain for the weakening or abolition of the international sanctions regime, not to succumb to blackmail and continue to consolidate international efforts to force the aggressor into civilized behaviour in the 21st century.
