You're reading: MP Oleksiy Poroshenko says Ukraine to boycott Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Assembly in St.Petersburg

Ukraine will boycott the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in St. Petersburg, Russia, and calls on other member states to do so, Ukrainian Member of Parliament from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction Oleksiy Poroshenko has said.

“At least there is no logic and it’s not acceptable that the next 137th session of the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is to be held in a country that violates the principles of the Charter of the IPU and the UN Charter, ” he said at a briefing in the Verkhovna Rada following a Ukrainian delegation’s participation in the 136th IPU Assembly, the world’s organization of national parliaments, in Bangladesh.

“Aggression should not be rewarded. That’s why the Ukrainian parliament has decided not to participate in the session of the Assembly of the IPU in St. Petersburg and insistently calls on all other delegations to refrain from the visit,” he said.

In his words, the Russian delegates of the IPU at the 136th session invited all parliamentarians “to be their guests in [Russian-occupied] Crimea and Sevastopol.” “It’s more than cynical. It’s important to strictly respond to such ‘hospitality’ at once and internationally designate Crimea as Ukraine,” Poroshenko said.

He said that at the 136th session of the IPU, he represented Ukraine at a forum of young parliamentarians. “This is a permanent platform, which was created as part of the IPU to invite young politicians to debates on global geopolitical themes.” One of the topics of the forum concerned the role of parliaments in preventing external interference in the internal affairs of states,” the MP said.

He said that his speech repeatedly mentioned that Russia had been in the lead in the violation of the principle of non-interference and that it had been the State Duma of the Russian Federation that had virtually unanimously allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014 to send troops to Ukraine.

“I’d like to stress that it is important that Ukraine’s representatives be present at international events of such level because we must use every opportunity, every platform for discussion to convey the truth about the situation in Ukraine. As Russia makes use even of a small conference for its propaganda. Therefore we must be present wherever possible to resist the Russian lies and propaganda,” he added.