The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on Thursday 28 April for the creation of a “ ad hoc international criminal tribunal “, to judge ” perpetrators of the crime of aggression against Ukraine including senior Russian leaders. To promote this initiative, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko traveled to France.
RFI: You closely follow everything that happens on the ground in Ukraine. What’s really been happening on the frontline in recent days ?
Oleksiy Goncharenko : There is a lot of fighting in the east of our country, in the south of our country, near my hometown of Odessa. Odessa is also the largest Ukrainian French city. The first governor of Odessa was the Prime Minister of France, the Duke of Richelieu [nommé en 1803 par le tsar Alexandre Ier, NDLR], after the restoration of the Bourbons. Unfortunately, there are many strikes with missiles throughout the territory of Ukraine. On Thursday, Kyiv, the capital, was attacked at the same time as the Secretary General of the United Nations [Antonio Guterres] was in kyiv visiting.
What exactly does Russian President Vladimir Putin mean with these strikes? ?
The symbol is that Putin says: I don’t want peace, I want to kill, I want to destroy. “I think everyone has to react.
Can Odessa have the same fate as Mariupol ?
I don’t want to think about the possibility of the destruction of Odessa. But Mariupol, today, it is a symbol like Auschwitz, Buchenwald, like Guernica, like Coventry, like Stalingrad, like Aleppo. This is the new symbol of the terror of war.
You talked about the reaction from the entire international community. France and other European countries are increasingly delivering arms to Ukraine. Is it enough for you and what do you expect from Europe ?
First, I would like to say thank you very much to France, to the nation. I would also like to say thank you to the ordinary French people who help the Ukrainian refugees a lot. We want more weapons, we want more sanctions against Russia. First, an embargo on the purchase of Russian gas is very important for the European perspective of our country because for our people it is a symbol of support. Because today Ukrainians are dying for these values and for Europe. And I think that after that, we have to join the European political family.
You have returned from Strasbourg where the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was held, where Russia is no longer present. What exactly happened during this session ? Have you seen significant progress ?
It was a very important session and that is why I left Ukraine for the first time in two months, because there were some postponements of resolutions on the situation in Ukraine. And the second resolution that was approved on Thursday is very important for us, in order to ask the urgent creation of an ad hoc criminal court against the military and political leadership of Russia, to make it possible to arrest and question Putin.
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