The Foreign Affairs Committee’s secret trip to Kiev – had to flee to a bunker during missile attacks

Secretly, representatives of the Riksdag’s foreign affairs committee have recently visited Ukraine.

There, you got to witness the mass graves after the massacre in Butja – and during one night flee to shelters when Russia launched a missile attack on Kiev.

– It was shocking, says Morgan Johansson (S), vice chairman of the foreign affairs committee.

During the night of Tuesday, the air raid alert went off all over Kiev after a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Several were injured in the attack, where Russia is said to have directed at least 18 advanced robots and drones at Kiev.

At the same time, seven Swedish members of parliament were secretly in the city, invited by the Ukrainian parliament. They had to quickly seek shelter in the hotel’s shelter.

– We were woken by the shelling at three o’clock, by explosions that came closer and closer. We had to put on clothes and go down to the hotel shelter in the basement. We spent a few hours there before they called off the danger. It turned out to have been one of the more intense attacks seen in a long time, says former Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson.

Shelter in bunker

He is now vice-chairman of the foreign affairs committee, and one of the seven Swedish committee members who were on the trip where representatives of all parties were represented, apart from the Green Party, which was prevented.

– It was about at least six Russian missiles they had managed to shoot down from the Ukrainian side. They are heavy weapons and if you don’t manage to shoot them down they cause a lot of destruction and death. They were proud that they avoided what they could and were able to shoot down missiles and drones, says Morgan Johansson.

What was it like to experience a bombing?

– It was shocking in its own way. It’s a situation you’ve never been directly involved in before, it’s actually a war zone. At the same time, it gave a deeper understanding of what immense pressure it must be to live in this where we got to experience up close what Ukrainians experienced every day for over a year. We saw a hint of the constant presence of the threat from Russia and the pressure it means to live in constant fear of being attacked during the night.

Were you scared?

– I wouldn’t say I was scared, it was something you knew could happen and were prepared for. I never felt that we were in any direct danger. It was the same experience that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have on a regular basis.

During Wednesday morning, the Swedish delegation has just left Ukraine, where they got there by bus and train from Warsaw. On Wednesday afternoon, you will fly back to Stockholm from the Polish capital.

The Swedish visit was to be kept secret until the delegates left Ukraine.

– The aim was partly to further deepen contact between the Riksdag and Ukraine’s parliament, but also to discuss the way forward. From Ukraine, they expressed great gratitude for the support they received from Sweden already from the first day of the war, says Morgan Johansson.

Visited mass graves

Something that made a deep impression on the Swedish delegates was the visit to Butja, where they saw the sites of mass graves where hundreds of people were found dead after Russia occupied the city for a month or so.

– It is and will be a disgrace in the history of Europe, that Russia occupies an area and when they are driven away, you discover that they murdered men, women and children in cold blood, who were shot with a shot in the head in pure executions.

– It was not people who expressed opposition to Russia, but it has been completely indiscriminate. It is a barbarism we have not seen on our continent for many decades. We have to go back to the Balkan war to find anything similar at all, says Morgan Johansson.

During the roughly two-day stay, Ukrainian requests for continued help were discussed, both in the form of financial and military support, but Morgan Johansson does not want to go into exactly what is at the top of the Ukrainian wish list.

He now hopes that Sweden can take the lead in ensuring that the road to Ukrainian EU membership can go quickly when the war is over.

– In the short term, it is about winning the war and that Sweden must contribute to this. But we must also pilot Ukraine into the European community as soon as possible. It will be complicated and difficult, but Sweden, as the chair country, can take the lead in a plan for how to start concrete membership negotiations, says Morgan Johansson.

FACTS

The Swedish delegation that visited Ukraine

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