Roberta METSOLA, EP President, opens the plenary session in Strasbourg by giving a statement after her visit in Ukraine and Poland, followed by a minute of silence in memory of the civilians killed by Russian army in the village of Bucha.

EU - Ukraine (T)

Strasbourg

plenary session

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

president's agenda

solidarity with Ukraine (T)

Plenary session: opening remarks by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, after her visit in Ukraine and in Poland, with a minute of silence for the Bucha's victims

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Thank you very much, dear colleagues. I wanted to quickly update you on my visit to Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament, and to the President Zelensky. It was a difficult decision to go but it meant a great deal to those fighting in Ukraine that the European Parliament was present with them. I was proud to take our message to Kiev and show that the European Parliament stands with them in these dark times.

SOUNDBITE (English), The atrocities committed by the Russian army in Ukraine are horrific, disgraceful and shameful. The images from Bucha and Irpin are the same as reports in other cities in Ukraine. They underlined the level of threat facing Ukraine and the global rules-based world order. In Kiev, I was clear. These are war crimes that are perpetrated by war criminals, and these coordinated acts of inhumanity cannot remain unanswered and that we will hold all those responsible to account.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Dear colleagues, Ukraine is fighting for our values in the most impossible conditions, and we have to support them, and concretely, that means that we need a need for an immediate adoption of a new package of forceful sanctions. We need to target those who bankroll and support Putin and close any still existing loopholes and Putin's oligarchs and frankly, all his political party members who must find nowhere to turn to.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Secondly, we need to step up our strategy of making this illegal invasion the costliest mistake that the Kremlin has ever made, and the hit to Russia's economy must be proportionate to the unprecedented atrocities that we are seeing, and our businesses must look elsewhere for growth and we will support them.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Crucially, Europe must speed up a policy of zero dependence from the Kremlin, disentangle Europe from Russian energy supplies, implement binding embargoes and stop indirectly funding those bombs. Finally, and here is my appeal to all of you in all your talks. All your statements. All your calls for governments and our international partners and partners to act.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, We must offer more support to Ukraine, and that means logistical help, more humanitarian aid and more military equipment that they desperately, desperately need. They are fighting for us and they are looking to us for help. And we should not ignore them. And in this regard, I would like you to join me for a minute of silence in memory of the victims of Russia, the victims of European and all the victims of war, terror and violence.