The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved on Jan. 27 a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, which contains a call on Russia to stop financing terrorism and to free Ukrainian pilot and MP Nadia Savchenko and all other Ukrainians, who are illegally held in custody in Russia.
The resolution was passed by 140 parliamentarians out of a total of 155, the European Truth reported. According to the publication, seven parliamentarians who voted against the resolution are representatives of Russia.
During the consideration of the resolution, several serious amendments were introduced to the document, in particular several provisions with the harsh criticism of the Russian Federation were added to the resolution.
“PACE has urged Russia not to finance terrorism in Ukraine. This provision calls on Russia to refrain from further financing the terrorist in Ukraine, to stop supporting illegal armed groups, and to press on them to make them abide by the Minsk agreements,” the publication said.
A separate clause of the resolution contains a call for the release of Savchenko, as well as all other “prisoners of war”. According to the document, they were imprisoned in Russia illegally.
In addition, a clause about the so-called “humanitarian convoys” was changed significantly. PACE said that such actions by Russia violate international law and in fact are not humanitarian convoys.
Several clauses that insist on the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia caused a discussion. “The Russians offered to remove them from the text, but such proposal was not supported by the Assembly,” the publication said.
