At the moment, it is not only the fate of Ukraine and its territorial integrity that is being judged, but the fate of the entire EU, Volodymyr Zelensky said in an online speech to the Cypriot Parliament on Thursday afternoon, in the presence of President Anastasiadis and members of the Council.
AKEL was absent from the meeting as a sign of protest for the “presence of a ‘fighter’ of the neo-fascist Azov Order” during the Zelenski sermon in the Greek Parliament.
According to the Cypriot News Agency, President Zelenski, after thanking Cyprus for the attitude of the authorities and its assistance, said that Cyprus can put pressure on Russia as it has strong tools for such a thing. We call on you, he said, to “close all your ports to Russian ships and yachts.”
He also said that “Cyprus may decide to stop having privileges and gold passports for Russians unless someone accepts that he did not intend to harm Ukraine.”
Speaking through a translator, the President of Ukraine said that every day the country is struggling to save people and to be able to survive the ruthless invasion of Russia with thousands of corpses in the streets, something that Ukraine has to live through since World War II.
He said Ukraine should not relive what it experienced in Butsa, where Russians killed, buried and raped people and elsewhere where thousands of bodies were buried in makeshift mass graves. Zelensky told the story of a six-year-old boy who got into a boat to be rescued by a river and whose child was found dead a few days ago. There is no doubt, he said, that this (crime) must be punished.
He said 167 children had died so far, adding that authorities did not know how many more people were dead in the attacked cities.
He said that the propagandistic Russian politicians say that this war is being waged to exterminate the territory of Ukraine, to divide it into as many parts as possible and to weaken it, adding that Russia is trying to divide Europe and sow discord among the Member States. . He said he (Russia) does not respect most countries and sees them for exploitation.
President Zelensky said that this invasion began in 2014 and that it is wrong for some to believe that a constructive and honest dialogue is being conducted with mutual respect. He also said that the Russian leadership perceived the attitude of the Member States as a weakness and wondered if this could go unpunished.
He expressed gratitude for the attitude of the Cypriot authorities, the humanitarian aid and the resolution of the Parliament in support but asked for the pressure exerted by Nicosia on Moscow.
He stressed that Russia has plans to occupy the whole of Ukraine and does not seek peace, adding that more efforts should be made at EU and global level.
He appealed to the Cypriot authorities to put pressure on Moscow, saying that Cyprus has strong tools to do so. He said that Cyprus should close all its ports to Russian ships and yachts and that there should be no more privileges and golden passports for Russians and dual citizenship.
If it turns out, he said, that someone did not intend to harm Ukraine or the EU “of course to give these people privileges, but we need proof”. He also said that the embargo on Russian gas should be seen separately.
Russia, he added, is killing civilians and the democratic world must stop funding the killing of children and work to ensure the security of every state. He referred to a common European home that we need to strengthen and expressed confidence that Cyprus will continue to support Ukraine and its path to the EU.
President Zelensky also included in his speech a short video of the attacks in various Ukrainian cities, the corpses on the streets and the destruction.
The Speaker of Parliament Annita Dimitriou He said that Cyprus is well aware of what pain and asylum will mean because it experienced the Turkish invasion with its consequences still visible. He also said that history offers us lessons as well as in ’74 Turkey, under the pretext of being a guarantor power, invaded and still illegally holds European territory.
Anastasiadis: It bothers us that there was no reference to the Turkish invasion
After Zelenski’s speech, leaving the Plenary Session of the Parliament, and in a journalist’s remark that the President of Ukraine in his speech did not condemn the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the President of the Republic Nikos Anastasiadis said that “it is not what we expected today.
“Of course this should be done, I want to be straightforward and categorical, (but) what we expected today is to hear what the Ukrainian people are suffering now, but the same things we suffered in 1974.
We are disturbed by the fact that there was no report. “The rule of law does not distinguish between states and the rights of others are violated, but the rights of others are ignored,” he said.
Mr. Anastasiadis stated that “what we have done is our duty to international legitimacy. a European country and especially a country that has experienced and is still experiencing to this day the sufferings of an invasion that was set up or justified on the exact same arguments and on the same, unfortunately, non-existent facts “.
Asked whether the Cypriot government would remain loyal to the Ukrainian authorities’ positions, the President replied “of course. Is there any doubt?”.
Asked if there was a case for revoking the passports of Russian oligarchs, the President said that “the Council of Ministers today authorized the Minister of the Interior to proceed with the process of revoking four of the 850 on the EU sanctions list. The rest (in the list) , who have passports have not received the relevant passport from the Republic of Cyprus “.
Source: Capital
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