PACE supports Ukraine's NATO bid and Zelensky's peace formula
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on the political consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine on June 22, according to Maria Mezentseva, the head of the Ukrainian delegation.
The resolution reportedly supports Ukraine's bid to join NATO, backs the peace formula outlined by President Volodymyr Zelensky, and recognizes Russia guilty of ecocide in Ukraine caused by the Kakhovka dam destruction.
By adopting the document, PACE has urged its members to declare Wagner Group and other paramilitary formations taking part in Russia's war as terrorist groups as well as create a public register of companies and individuals working for Russia's benefit.
In addition, PACE supported the creation of strategic European economic autonomy from Russian oil and gas "as Russia's main tool of blackmailing Europe," Mezentseva wrote on Facebook.
The document supports implementing other measures aiming to prevent Russia from circumventing international sanctions and sourcing its war machine.
On the same day, PACE tweeted that it had adopted another resolution, calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to continue its ban on Russia and Belarus from competing in international sporting events, including the 2024 Olympic Games.
In March 2023, the IOC recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed back into international competition if they do so as "individual neutral athletes." They were banned from competing following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"In the current context, their participation in the Games was 'unthinkable,'" the parliamentarians said, cited by the PACE press service. "This would certainly be used as a tool of propaganda and would prevent other athletes - not least Ukrainian athletes - from participating."
"As Russian and Belarusian elite athletes receive state salaries and are often part of military sports teams, it seems impossible that they could demonstrate their neutrality and distance from these regimes," reads the tweet.
