NATO Parliamentary Assembly unanimously recognizes Russia’s crimes against Ukraine as genocide, winning ‘diplomatic victory’ for Ukraine’s sake ‘with far-reaching consequences’ , said Yegor Chernev, head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Luxembourg assembly. said.
“It is our diplomatic victory. All our main wishes regarding the final text of the declaration have been taken into account,” Chernev said.
The statement backs the creation of an international tribunal for Russian war crimes and contains a promise to help Ukraine win.
The participants of the Assembly declared their commitment to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine, to implement new sanctions and to contribute to the restoration of the country’s economy in accordance with the Marshall Plan.
In his overnight video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly statement.
“Things are called by their proper names: a clear recognition of Russia’s crimes against our state as genocide, a clear condemnation of the Rashist ideology,” he said. “It is also the right basis for other international organizations.”
Meanwhile, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said a decision on supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets “would take several months at best”.
Speaking to the Organization of War Reporters in Washington, Kendall said the F-16 fighters “will provide the Ukrainians with temporary opportunities that they currently don’t have, but it won’t fundamentally change the situation.”
He said “aviation has not yet been a deciding factor” and pointed to the effectiveness of ground-based air defense systems.
“F-16 fighters will help Ukraine, but they won’t fundamentally change the situation,” he said.
Kendall agreed that it was time to start thinking about this question.
“Of course we could have started earlier, but we had higher priorities,” he said.
At a meeting Monday in Poland, defense ministers from northern Europe backed the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets.
“Great support for the goal of training F-16 pilots for Ukraine,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said, adding that Denmark is ready to play a central role in this regard.
US President Joe Biden also reaffirmed US support for working with allies and partners to train Ukrainian pilots to fly fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16.
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