European Greens continue to stand in undivided solidarity with Ukraine

EGP Resolution adopted at the 6th EGP Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 - 4 December 2022

European Greens continue to stand in undivided solidarity with Ukraine

As the horrific Russian war of aggression continues, we as European Greens reaffirm our undivided solidarity and support for Ukraine and its struggle for freedom and peace. While in general we seek disarmament and peaceful solutions to international conflicts, we recognise that this is an illegal and unprovoked war waged against a fellow European country, leading us to support Ukraine in any way necessary. This is an attack on all of us and on our common European values. We continue to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s war and the Belarusian involvement, the committed human rights violations and war crimes, including forced deportation of Ukrainian civilians to and forced adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia.

As we continue to witness Russia’s further escalation of the war, we strongly condemn the recent increase in targeted attacks against civil infrastructure across Ukrainian territory and Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions further violating Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity in addition to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Up to this day, Russia has in this invasion inflicted mass killings of thousands and has caused the forced displacement of millions of Ukrainians internally and abroad. Russia’s war continues to threaten peace and security in Europe and worldwide and has severe global consequences in the form of increased insecurity and rising prices across Europe on basic food products and energy, which especially affects poorer countries, marginalized communities, and vulnerable individuals. As European Greens, we utterly condemn the Russian regime using hunger and energy as weapons in his illegal war.

Therefore, having regard to its previous resolution on Ukraine adopted at the 35th EGP Council, and having peace and justice as one of our main goals, we, the European Greens:

• Confirms the need to expand QMV (qualified majority voting) on foreign policy issues in the Council in order to have an ambitious response;

• Demand that the responsible government officials and military leaders of the Russian Armed Forces and those committing human rights violations and war crimes must be held accountable under international law. We support the ongoing proceedings of the ICJ case on allegations of genocide as well as the ICC investigation of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; we further support the individual investigations of genocide committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people launched by the EU Joint Investigation Team and individual European countries and the legal support and coordination of investigations such as by the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group;

• Call on the EU institutions and the Member States, as well as EU partners, to uphold and to implement further targeted and hard-hitting sanctions against the Russian Federation, and specific individuals, who hold some degree of influence, accountability or culpability in this war, for example oligarchs, military leaders and government officials, as swiftly as possible and urge Member States to show unity regarding the sanction packages. Continue to call for a full embargo on Russian imports of fossil fuels and uranium as early as implementable, and for the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines to be completely abandoned, in order to stop financing Putin's war machine with EU money;

• Call on the EU institutions and the Member States, as well as EU partners, to swiftly and continuously provide all the necessary intelligence and technological assistance as well as financial and military support to Ukraine, including the delivery of necessary arms, as the Ukrainians have a right to defend their country and recapture annexed or occupied territories;

• Call on the EU institutions and the Member States, as well as EU partners, to increase its humanitarian aid for Ukrainian society, including by providing shelter for those who are fleeing from the country, in particular in view of the upcoming winter, especially prioritising the most vulnerable groups, including but not limited to ethnic and cultural minorities, the poor and invisibilised (such as IDPs, migrants, and the homeless), the LGBTQIA+ community, women and children, and to increase cooperation with civil society and free media firstly in Ukraine, but also in Belarus and Russia;

• Support all Russian citizens protesting and fighting the current regime and fighting for democracy and an end to the war from within or outside of Russia and urge Member States to increase the issuance of humanitarian visas to Russian citizens fleeing from persecution by the regime;

• Demand an unwavering monetary and structural support for Ukraine in its efforts of post-war recovery that goes hand in hand with ambitious green transition solutions. As soon as possible, even before the end of the war, ensure all the necessary international legal conditions to seize frozen Russian foreign reserves which will be then used for the rebuilding of Ukraine, as compensation of the damages caused by Russian aggression. This would be contingent on an international court ruling requiring Russia to compensate damages;

• Reaffirm the commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova within their internationally recognised borders;

• Commit to providing support and accelerating efforts to end occupations in these countries and to resolve any remaining territorial disputes;

• Call on the EU institutions and the Member States to support Ukraine, Georgia, and the Republic of Moldova on their path towards EU accession by providing the necessary structural, organisational, and financial support to implement the necessary changes for accession;

• Reaffirm the commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia within their internationally recognised borders also with regards to their eventual EU accession; call on the EU institutions and the Member States, as well as EU partners to accelerate efforts to support these countries in ending occupations and solving any remaining territorial disputes;

• Condemn Russia’s efforts to undermine the security and safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities as well as Russia’s threats of using weapons of mass destruction and call on Russia to immediately cease its threats of a nuclear escalation. We welcome the decisions taken by the United Nations General Assembly at its 11th Emergency Special Session, which deplore Russia's aggression, declare invalid under international law the annexation of regions of Ukraine by Russia, and express support for efforts by the UN Secretary-General and Member States towards de-escalation of the situation and a peaceful resolution of the conflict, with respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine;

• Express our concern over the recent methane leaks from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, leading to a gas leak corresponding to Denmark’s average CO2 release for more than half a year, and urge for a full investigation of the incident and for harsh measures to hold those responsible to account as well as urgent steps across the EU to secure critical infrastructure, in particular in regard to energy supply;

• Calls the EU and its Member States to further push for independence from Russian fossil fuels and an interconnected European energy network that includes Ukraine as part of the green transition. This includes the acceleration of further expanding and connecting Ukrainian energy infrastructure with Europe in the long-run and the provision of temporary and emergency supplies of gas and electricity in the short-run to protect Ukrainians from further energy disruptions by Russia;

• Demand intensive efforts to secure European independence from fossil fuels to stop financing authoritarian, dictatorial and totalitarian regimes, and instead to increase efforts to realise and speed up the green transition by furthering the expansion of renewable energy in Europe;

• Call on all countries to stop delivering weapons to Russia;

• Confirms the need for a dignified reception of Ukrainian refugees;

• Call on European countries benefiting from extraordinary high oil and gas prices due to the war to share their surplus through humanitarian aid, and to redirect this profit to mitigate the social impacts of energy poverty in Europe through monetary aid to countries suffering the most from rising food and energy prices, to support Ukraine's post-war reconstruction and to invest in renewable energy;

• Provide support and protection to ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples who have been affected by Russian imperialism and aggression, such as Crimean Tatars;

• Calls on the EU institutions and national governments of Europe to intensify the efforts to work constructively with non-Western states, particularly in the Global South. We support them in moving away from investment and trade with Russia, so long as Russia wages a war of aggression against Ukraine, whilst acknowledging and redressing the past and present of European colonialism and imperialism.

We stand with the people of Ukraine, and we grieve their losses with them. In their successful struggle against the Russian invasion and by valiantly preventing Russia from extending its war further, Ukrainians are not only fighting for their own peace, freedom, and territorial integrity, but for that of all of Europe. It is our duty to support them as much as we can. We as the European Greens remain fully committed to act decisively and swiftly in our support to Ukraine - be it as parts of governments or as a strong opposition putting pressure on EU institutions and the Member States.

For us it is clear: We continue to stand in undivided solidarity for Ukraine, we will stay united, and we will not let Putin win in dividing us.