26.01.2015

Elmar Brok, Chairman of AFET, and Andrej Plenković, Chairman of EP Ukraine Delegation, strongly condemn terror attack on Mariupol and call on Foreign Affairs Council to increase pressure on Moscow.

Under the Chairmanship of Elmar Brok, EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee held an extraordinary debate on the situation in Ukraine and exchanged views with Ambassador Konstantyn Yelisyeyev and Gunnar  Wiegand, director in EEAS.

Chairman of AFET Elmar Brok and the Chairman of EP’s Delegation to the Parliamentary Association Committee Andrej Plenković strongly condemned the terror attack on the strategic city of Mariupol by Russian backed separatists in which 30 people were killed, among them children, and around hundred were wounded. They expressed condolences to the families of the victims and Ukrainian authorities.

They warned of further destabilisation of Ukraine and violations of the Minsk cease-fire agreements and called for immediate de-escalation of hostilities. Plenković advocated that EU Foreign Ministers meeting on Thursday should step-up further restrictive measures, in particular in the financial area, towards Moscow which continues to support separatists.

Having reiterated the full support to the territorial integrity of Ukraine and its European ambitions, Plenković said that the security situation, along with all aspects of the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, will be discussed in detail at the first meeting of the Parliamentary Association Committee at the end of February in Brussels.