Seimas has called on the international community to continue providing Ukraine with a wide range of weapons and strengthening sanctions against Russia and Belarus

Press release, 12 April 2022

The Seimas strongly condemns the continued military aggression, war crimes against sovereign Ukraine and its people as well as crimes against humanity committed and being committed by the Russian Federation, with the complicity of the Republic of Belarus. The Seimas proposes, that, after due consideration of the legal consequences, the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation be qualified as genocide of the Ukrainian people.

The Lithuanian Parliament invites the international community to continue to provide Ukraine with a wide range of weapons to enable Ukraine to defend its freedom and sovereignty, to restore the integrity of its territory and to prevent further mass killings of civilians.

The relevant parliamentary Resolution was adopted unanimously by 134 votes in favour immediately after the online address to the Seimas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

When presenting the Resolution, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas, said that every day starts and ends with the news from Ukraine. ‘This is a chronicle of menacing, bloody and heart-breaking events that we did not truly expect to experience in our lives. However, nothing is or can be more important in Europe now than what is going on only a few hundred kilometres south-east of Vilnius. The words ‘violence’, ‘brutality’ and ‘sadism’ prevail in the public domain in recent days. The images from Bucha and other Ukrainian cities and towns move everyone who believes in humanity to tears. Most alarmingly, this is just a tiny part of what the killers and torturers sent by Russia do in Ukraine,’ said Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen.

According to her, the world countries demonstrate exclusive unity today but this is clearly not enough. ‘We, as representatives of Western democracies, must stop weighing human lives and suffering against the temporary inconveniences for our everyday existence. We, as politicians and representatives of democratic states, must do more every hour and minute and act with greater resolve and speed, because each hour of hesitation translates into more rounds of bullets in Ukrainian cities and more bombs on the heads of the elderly, children, women and soldiers in Ukraine,’ the Speaker of the Seimas said.

The Resolution calls on Ukraine and the international community to urgently and thoroughly document the crimes committed by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine and to set up an international criminal tribunal with a view to bringing all perpetrators to justice.

The Seimas also encourages the further substantial strengthening of sanctions against Russia and Belarus until Russia withdraws its troops from the entire territory of Ukraine, including Crimea, and stresses the need to ensure that the implementation of the sanctions already imposed is comprehensive and effective, both at national, European Union and international level.

Welcoming the decision of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania to completely abandon gas imports from Russia, the Seimas urges the EU Member States and NATO member countries and their allies to introduce a full embargo on imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel and gas from Russia.

In the Resolution, the Seimas advocates the confiscation of all assets of Russian officials or oligarchs linked to Vladimir Putin’s regime, their confidants and those who provide cover for and empower them, and the revocation of their Schengen or national visas, with a view to the total and immediate banning of ‘golden’ passports, visas and residence permits in the European Union. At the same time, the Seimas invites the EU Member States and NATO member countries to lower the level of diplomatic representation of Russia and to counter the activities of Russia’s media channels and media outlets that spread disinformation, incite violence and justify war crimes and crimes against humanity.

By its Resolution, the Seimas backs efforts to establish the Ukraine Solidarity Trust Fund to rebuild Ukraine after the war, to initiate a large-scale investment programme and to restore the country’s growth potential, as well as expresses support for all Russians and Belarusians who oppose the criminal war against Ukraine perpetrated by the Kremlin and Minsk regimes.

Rimas Rudaitis, Adviser, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]