Russian citizens should bear some of the responsibility for the war, initiated by the authorities of their country, including the inconveniences from the introduction of U.S. economic sanctions against Russia, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ukraine’s representative in the Trilateral Contact Group’s subgroup Iryna Gerashchenko has said.
“Latest Russian opinion polls show that the rating of the United Russia exceeds 50 percent, more than 83 percent of citizens support Putin. The responsibility for killing of Ukrainian and Syrian children, for the seizure of Crimea and the destruction of Donbas, for looting and export of Ukrainian enterprises, for the crippled and the killed lies not only with Putin and his cronies, but with the Russian Federation and the entire Russian people, with every Russian. This is their policy. This is their choice. This is their war. That’s why they cannot say: we did not know. They all knew perfectly well and supported this,” Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on August 3.
The first deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stressed that the crimes should be punished.
“Therefore, sanctions against the Russian economy are so important. Every Russian should bear his part of the responsibility for the war because it was their, Russians’, the general silent choice – the war against Ukraine, the war in Syria, the war against the whole world,” Gerashchenko summed up.
