Interparliamentary Assembly of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland concerned about Russian military build-up along Ukrainian borders – final document

KYIV. Dec 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Interparliamentary Assembly of the Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, the Seimas of Lithuania, the Seimas and the Senate of Poland is concerned about the build-up of the Russian armed forces along the borders of Ukraine and declares that Russia will bear full responsibility for the possible conflict escalation.

"The Interparliamentary Assembly of the Verkhovna Rada, the Seimas of Lithuania, the Seimas and the Senate of Poland […] observes with concern the build-up of the Russian armed forces along the borders of Ukraine, which contradicts the principle of deterrence from the threat or use of force in international relations, which Russia has pledged to adhere to in accordance with international treaties […] It recognizes Russia as a party that will bear full responsibility for the possible escalation of the conflict if it does not abandon its aggressive actions," according to the final document of the XI Interparliamentary Assembly, signed by the heads of parliaments of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania on Monday in Warsaw.

The document was published on the website of the Ukrainian parliament. In it, the signatories call on the international community to strengthen restrictive measures and sanctions against the Russian Federation until the full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity within the internationally recognized borders and demand that Russia should stop military aggression against Ukraine, stop the growth of military potential in the occupied territories and on the borders with Ukraine, and return all temporarily occupied territories to Ukraine.

The participants of the Interparliamentary Assembly also called on Russia to end the militarization of the Black Sea region and illegal restrictions on freedom of navigation.

The document also condemns the use of illegal migration as a tool to create an artificial migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian and Lithuanian-Belarusian borders. The assembly participants call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately stop the escalation at the border and stop the flow of illegal migration through its territory to neighboring countries.

The Interparliamentary Assembly spoke in favor of initiating an international trial "to convict Alexander Lukashenko and members of his regime for crimes they personally committed against the people of Belarus on a massive scale" and proposed to consider the issue of transferring Belarus’s case to an international court on the basis of violations by the Lukashenko regime of the Chicago Convention, the Montreal Convention and the UN Convention against Torture.