At Davos forum, Ukrainian MPs call for greater sanctions on Russia

As the war in Ukraine emerges as the biggest talking point here during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, a group of women parliamentarians from the war-hit country has called for greater sanctions on Russia and said the aim should be to win the war against what they described as ‘dictatorship’ of Vladimir Putin.

Addressing a group of journalists late on Sunday night, the five MPs also said that winning the war would mean getting back Cremia, which was annexed by Russia years ago.

They said it was necessary for the West to support Ukraine in winning this war with humanitarian, financial and weaponry support so that another war is not waged by Russia in some other part of the world in the future.

The MPs included Yevheniya Kravchuk, a former journalist and former head of the press office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party; Ivanna Klympush -Tsintsadze, former Vice-Prime-Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, overseeing relations with the EU and NATO; and Yulia Klymenko – First Deputy Head of the Transport & Infrastructure Committee, and former Board Member of Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (including Odesa, Mariupol, and Cherson).

Anastasiia Radina, Head of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy, called on Russia to be designated a high-risk jurisdiction for terrorist financing and money laundering.

The MPs also included Alyona Shkrum, who has focussed on human rights, both as a member of parliament and as a lawyer.

At the same event, Mstyslav Chernov, a visual journalist who documented the siege of Mariupol by Russian troops for more than two weeks, also narrated the destruction happening in the country and called for the international media to support Ukrainian journalists.

Kravchuk said the war has seen many journalists also losing their lives, some while on work, and others who decided to fight alongside the Ukrainian forces.

Klymenko said, “You don’t need to die for us. But we are dying for you”, referring to the people in the West and other parts of the world.

She also said the Russian attack has led to hundreds of millions of people facing starvation around the world due to food insecurity and other consequences of the war.

The MPs also asked the Western media to guard against the propaganda from Russia and against accepting the de facto Russian annexation of Crimea all these years.

“Just because there are a lot of Russians in London and Nice doesn’t mean that Russia can claim British and French territory,” one MP said.

“Do not stop supporting Ukraine,” another MP said, while another said that Ukraine needs “NATO-style” weaponry and that all conversations about rule of law, human rights, and democracy would depend on security assistance as well.

Ahead of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, the MPs said they are here to deliver a message from Ukraine and the necessity to stand together by giving up trying to do business as usual with the Russian Federation.

They said sanctions against Russia and assistance to Ukraine were necessary to protect everything that they believe in — prosperity, democracy, and freedom.

They said their aim is to win this war and providing heavy weaponry and boycotting Russian oil and gas were the greatest “humanitarian” contributions the West could make.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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