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”.
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.
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”.
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.
- deterrence: the development of defense capabilities to prevent armed aggression against Ukraine;
- 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 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).
The newspaper Holos Ukrainy