Belgium is going to support sanctions against Russian nationals involved in an attack on Ukrainian naval vessels near the Kerch Strait and the capturing of its crews on Nov. 25, Volodymyr Ariev of the Bloc Petro Poroshenko faction, chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, has said.
“Our PACE delegation’s meeting with the Belgian Foreign Minister lasted an hour and a half. An interesting and frank conversation [it was] from which we learned that Belgium would support sanctions against Russian citizens involved in the attack on Ukrainian naval ships near the Kerch Strait and the capturing of the crews,” Ariev wrote on his Facebook page on Feb. 8.
At the same time, he said Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders believes that Ukraine should not build a wall with the Russian Federation. “I pointed out that we are not building a wall but a military fortification, and whether to build it or not, and what exactly to build, depends only on the situation in which one or another country finds itself. Ours has no other way out,” the People’s Deputy said.
Ariev said the Belgian minister also said that he was “ready to heed Ukraine’s stance in the Council of Europe on the Russian issue and agreed that Russia should take noticeable steps to de-occupy Crimea and implement the Minsk accords so that its delegation could return to PACE without sanctions.”
“Next week, our delegation is scheduled to meet with the former Prime Minister of Lithuania, a deputy of the Lithuanian Seimas, a big friend of Ukraine, Andrius Kubilius,” the MP said.
