On September 15, the Verkhovna Rada published a statement which was supported by 228 deputies of the Ukrainian Parliament. The statement reads, “We will regard such a step as a direct threat to European security in general and the security of Ukraine in particular”. 

The Ukrainian legislature maintains that the recent presidential election in Belarus has been neither free nor fair. There has been no competition between candidates. More than that, representatives of free media and authoritative observers from international organizations were not admitted to monitor the election. The Verkhovna Rada’s statement says that “the election has been marred by considerable violations, widespread electoral fraud, many candidates have been denied registration, the vote count has been nontransparent”.  

Ukrainian legislators consider inadmissible that opponents have been intimidated and arrested, that obstacles have been created for independent national observers at polling stations. “All this gives reason to believe that the published results of the election of the President of Belarus do not reflect the real will of Belarussian citizens”, the statement notes. 

The Parliament of Ukraine has also condemned “the violence and the excessive use of force” by the law-enforcement of Belarus. The statement reads, “We join the European Union’s assessments regarding the undemocratic character of the presidential election in Belarus and support the decision to impose sanctions against those who are responsible for the falsification of the election results and the use of violence against protesters”.   

At the same time, Ukrainian parliamentarians stress that Ukraine respects the sovereignty of Belarus and resolutely refutes accusations of the Belarussian party that Ukraine is allegedly involved in attempts to destabilize the situation in their country. On the contrary, the Verkhovna Rada has called the Belorussian authorities to establish an equal dialogue with the society in order to find ways of peaceful settlement of the ongoing crisis. The statement offers that “one of the ways may be new free and democratic elections with the participation of  independent international observers from leading European institutions”. 

Remarkable is the fact that on the same day, September 15, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, declared the following, “We consider the elections in Belarus falsified and regard Lukashenko as the illegitimate president of Belarus”. According to Borrell, sanctions against some Belorussian officials are being prepared and will be enacted in the nearest future as soon as they have been agreed at an emergency meeting of the European Council. 

A day before, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the invariability of Ukraine’s course for membership in NATO and the European Union. This program has been included in the text of the new Strategy of national security of Ukraine approved by the President on September 14. According to the new Strategy, Ukraine strives for peace and its highest social value is man, his life and health, honor and dignity, personal immunity and safety. 

The Strategy is based on three principles of State policy in the sphere of national security: 

- deterrence: the development of defense capabilities to prevent armed aggression against Ukraine; 

- sustainability: an ability of the society and the State to adapt quickly to changes in security environment and to maintain the sustainable functioning particularly by minimizing external and internal vulnerabilities; 

- interaction: the development of strategic relations with key foreign partners, first of all, with the European Union, the NATO and the United States; cooperation with other states and international organizations with due account of national interests of Ukraine. 

The priorities of national interests are: defending the independence and sovereignty; restoring the territorial integrity; developing human capital; protection of rights, liberties and legal interests of citizens of Ukraine; European and Euro-Atlantic integration. 

The recent sociological survey conducted by the Ukrainian Razumkov Center shows that if a nationwide referendum on Ukraine’s membership in the European Union was held today, then 57.9% of Ukrainians would vote for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union (26.9% would say “no” and the rest 15.3% of Ukrainian citizens would be undecided or would not participate in voting). 

As for Ukraine’s membership in NATO, 47.7% of Ukrainians would say “yes” at a referendum (32.8% would be against Ukraine’s accession to NATO, 6.5% of Ukrainian citizens would not vote and 13% would be undecided on the answer).

The newspaper Holos Ukrainy