Landsbergis in Strasbourg: "The lack of accountability, which promotes the sense of impunity, are the primary reasons that allow Russia to continue its terrible, senseless aggression"
2 October, in Strasbourg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, who presides over the Council of Europe's (CoE) Committee of Ministers, attended the autumn session of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly (PA).
"The lack of accountability, which promotes the sense of impunity, are the primary reasons that allow Russia to continue its terrible, senseless aggression," Landsbergis stressed in his speech.
The Foreign Minister also drew the attention of the PA members to the fact that nearly 80 per cent of Ukraine’s power generation capacity had been knocked out due to constant Russian attacks.
"While millions of Ukrainians fell victim to the horrors of Holodomor 90 years ago, their compatriots of today – also counted in millions – will be exposed to Kholodomor – a deliberate attempt to make their life unbearable due to winter cold", Landsbergis.
In his speech, the head of Lithuania's diplomacy commended the efforts of the Council of Europe to ensure Russia's full accountability for its crimes - the established Register of Damage for Ukraine that had received the 10,000th claim and the continued development of a comprehensive compensation mechanism through the setting up of a Claims Commission for Ukraine and a Fund; the call for creating an effective Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression at the Conference of the EU Ministers of Justice in Vilnius, as well as the Council of Europe’s decision to become a member of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children and the Council’s active participation in it.
"Ukraine is regrettably still not allowed to strike Russian targets that pose a threat. The most unfortunate thing about all of this is that by not allowing Ukraine to use the weapons the way it sees fit and that it needs to use, it might appear that we are defending Russian assets more than Ukrainian people," the Foreign Minister said in response to questions from the PA members.
When addressing the Parliamentary Assembly, Lithuania's Foreign Minister also discussed other important achievements of the Lithuanian Presidency, including the adoption of the Vilnius Declaration, which reinforces social rights and the protection of social rights, and the Vilnius Convention (the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law), which was signed in September.
Lithuania took over the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 17 May this year and will hold it until 13 November, when it will be handed over to Luxembourg. The Council of Europe has 46 countries. It is one of the few international organisations that expelled the aggressor Russia in response to its large-scale military invasion of Ukraine.
Video of the Foreign Minister's speech: https://www.youtube.com/live/sYyd9ucUSEA?feature=shared&t=6133
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