In a statement, MPs call on the European Union countries to immediately suspend the issue of tourism and entry visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens.
The Foreign Affairs Commission noted in a statement that since Russia's unprovoked military attack on Ukraine on February 24, 12 million Ukrainians had been forced to leave their homes and more than five million had been forced to leave their country. During this period, reports of human rights protection groups and international observation missions reported atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian civilians, including torture, rape, killings, and mass detentions of civilians in so-called filtration centers, as well as mass deportations, the statement claims.
Less than 24 hours after Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement on the resumption of exports of grain blocked in Ukraine through Turkey and the United Nations over the Black Sea, the Russian forces launched a missile attack on the port of Odesa on 23 July demonstrating its negligence for its commitments, international order, and its institutions, and deliberately continued to deepen the global food crisis, hunger and suffering will be caused worldwide, said the commission.
The Saeima Foreign Affairs Commission said in the statement that Russia uses suffering and intimidation as an instrument in its attempts to demoralize the Ukrainian people and armed forces, paralyzing the state's capacity to occupy Ukraine. MPs have deemed Russia's violence against civilians, which is being pursued for political purposes, as terrorism and Russia as a country supporting terrorism, and calls on other similar-minded countries to express this opinion.
Parliamentarians categorically condemn Russia's military aggression and the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has been carried out with the support and engagement of the Belarusian regime, and call on the Euro-Atlantic Community and its partners to urgently step up and introduce comprehensive sanctions against Russia, including the European Union's Member States to immediately suspend tourism and limit the issuance of entry visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens.
In expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people, the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Saeima agreed to direct the announcement for consideration at a forthcoming meeting of the Saeima.
