Parliamentary Assembly

Dear Secretary General of the Council of Europe, dear President of the Parliamentary Assembly, dear colleagues, members of the Assembly, ladies and gentlemen, above all allow me to sincerely congratulate Ms Stella Kyriakides on her election to the high position of President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I am glad that this event has practically coincided with my visit to the Assembly. Such symbolic junctures do not happen that frequently, yet when they happen they are always accurate and timely. Today that is exactly the case. I personally wish you inspiration, energy, and success in achieving the noble mission set by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as protecting the principles upon which this Assembly is founded. There is no place for compromise in these matters, especially with those who by all means intend to compromise the universal value and foundations upon which we build up our co-operation and our societies.

I would also like to express my words of gratitude for the invitation to address this distinguished Assembly. It is a true honour for me. As a former colleague in the Assembly who spent many years here, I remember that time and remember the importance of the Parliamentary Assembly, and perfectly understand the responsibility that lies upon your shoulders, especially under the current circumstances of extreme populism, numerous cyber-attacks, direct armed aggression, and very aggressive propaganda campaigns. As the President of Ukraine, I sincerely count on your support of my country in these dramatically difficult circumstances.

Now, we find ourselves, Ukrainians, occupied against our will. Three years ago, I stood here before this Assembly and already as a head of State shared with you our experience from the very first day of countering Russian aggression. I would sincerely wish to address you today with the words that the aggression against my country is over, that within the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine the military action and the blatant occupation of parts of our sovereign territory are over, and that in Ukraine peaceful life gradually returns to the liberated lands depleted by the military action of those who keep saying, “Nas tam nyet” – “We are not there”. They are the occupying power.

Unfortunately, even three years after my statement before the Assembly, we still have not reached this perspective. We are well aware of the reason why. Dear members of the Assembly, has something changed over these three years in Russian deeds and behaviour? Absolutely nothing. Today, as three years ago, we are forced to keep searching for the response to the Russian aggression – the aggression which turned into the brutal attack not only against Ukraine but against human rights in the very heart of Europe. The Russian Federation keeps, bluntly, violating commitments taken upon itself, in the same way that Moscow keeps ignoring our persistent demands, and the demands of the international community, to get back to respecting international law.

This Assembly has echoed these demands and fixed them in a number of its resolutions. But the Russian Federation keeps pretending that it has nothing to do with this. Moscow continues to turn a blind eye to its commitment under the Minsk agreement. Its military forces are still on the territory of Ukraine, both in Crimea and in Donbass. Military assets are still delivered to illegal entities created by the Russian Federation. Every day, we receive more worrying news about the blatant violation of human rights in the occupied territories. Release of the hostages and political prisoners is stalled. I cannot but mention Oleg Sentsov, Alexander Kolchenko, Roman Suschenko, and many, many others. For over two years we have fought to free 63-year-old Igor Kozlovsky, the very famous theologian who remained in occupied Donetsk to look after his ill son. The same goes for 28-year-old Stanislav Aseyev, a journalist who was not afraid to write the truth about life in occupied Donetsk. Such stories of Ukrainian hostages number well over 100 already. But even worse is the fact that the number of hostages in Donbass does not cease to rise. People are deliberately chased and captured only for the fact that they are a citizen of their own country – of the Ukrainian state. They are captured with a cynical reason in mind – to blackmail Ukraine, which will never abandon its citizens, neither in Crimea, nor in Donbass, nor in a Russian prison.

Systemic repression has turned the Crimean peninsula into an island of no freedom and a land of fear. In occupied Crimea, the Russian Federation applies the worst practice of the Soviet repressive machine. Anyone who dares to reject the so-called reunification with the Russian Federation becomes a victim of arbitrary detention, prosecution, torture, extra-judicial execution, and inhuman treatment. Recently a deputy head of the Mejlis, Akhtem Chiygoz, received the so-called verdict of the occupation authorities. He said that today in Crimea those are tried who defended the laws of their country, the international norms and the rules. Could anyone give more precise words describing the situation in Crimea than Akhtem Chiygoz in his final statement in so-called court? This concerns not only Crimea but Europe as a continent of the rule of law, not the rule of force. The case of another deputy head of the Mejlis, Ilmi Umerov, is also telling. At first, this hero of his people experienced Russian punitive psychiatry. This day, an occupation court has sentenced him to two years in the settlement colony. The piercing chill of Soviet mock trials creeps from this sentence.

The scale of the crime and violation committed by the occupation authorities in Crimea demonstrates that the Russian Federation, which is recognised as an occupying power by the United Nations General Assembly, clearly ignores its international legal commitments. In this context, allow me to express my gratitude for the particular attention that the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe itself pay to the issue of Crimea. Numerous appeals of the Council of Europe monitoring bodies on human rights to access Crimea are all telling, as was an unprecedented decision by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the situation in the autonomous republic of Crimea made in the city of Sebastopol, Ukraine, and adopted this May.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me once again to ask my question. Has something changed over the three years since my last statement? Definitely, yes. The international coalition in support of Ukraine and the rule of international law has only strengthened, and I am grateful to the honourable members of this Assembly for their solidarity in protecting Ukraine from Russian aggression from the very beginning. The people of Ukraine will always remember the hand of support extended to us by our friends in the most difficult moment of our history.

Exactly a year ago, this Assembly adopted a resolution on the political consequences of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, which states, “only significant and measurable progress towards their implementation can form the basis for the restoration of a fully-fledged, mutually respectful dialogue with the Assembly.” The Assembly rightly reserved the right not to renew the credentials of the Russian delegation if the Russian Federation continues its occupation of the sovereign territory of Ukraine. In fact, none of the demands was implemented by the Russian Federation.

It is not just about the implementation of routine documents. Behind the provisions of those documents are human faces and human lives. Hence the resistance to returning to business as usual with the Russian Federation in the Assembly and every other international political platform. At this challenging moment, let us be frank with each other and with ourselves. The aim of Russian aggression is to destroy democracy, liberal freedom and human rights. In one place it does it with tanks, and in other places it does it with absolutely fake news; in one place it violates the key principles of international law, and in other places it manipulates consciousness. We have no right to fail against that challenge. We will prove our dignity, and in recent years members of the Council of Europe have experienced the delicacy of the Russian Federation’s information warfare. More than once, we have seen the language of hatred, violence and discrimination hidden beneath the slogans of free speech. The Russian Federation tries to use our own achievements against the democratic community.

In 1950, Winston Churchill, an ideological father of the Council of Europe, appealed to the Assembly against the background of the Soviet Union’s challenge to a democratic Europe. He admitted that Moscow had a wealth of opportunities to create trouble. Given the circumstances, he said something very important about the prospects of this Assembly, “Either we shall prove our worth and weight and value to Europe or we shall fail.” With those words of wisdom in mind, I strongly reject what some say about a fait accompli on Crimea. This tribune was not invented to call for appeasement or for the trade of territory for money, oil or gas. That has never happened. It was invented to safeguard our fundamental values and principles, and most importantly to defend them at times of need.

The time has come. Moscow has pushed Europe back to the same reality about which Sir Winston Churchill was so concerned almost 70 years ago. That is why the guarantee of our success resides in preserving and strengthening our unity, solidarity and resilience. It is only by respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine that we can achieve peace and stability in Europe. Ukraine strives for peace, as does everyone in this Chamber. As head of State, I want peace for Ukraine and for Europe.

Those are not mere words. Ukraine has proved on numerous occasions its readiness for a peaceful settlement of the situation artificially created by the Russian Federation. Ukraine, and me personally as President, has initiated a long-lasting ceasefire three times in 2017 – the Easter ceasefire, the harvest ceasefire and the back-to-school ceasefire. Russian occupation troops and their proxies violated those ceasefires almost straightaway.

Last week, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a law establishing the condition for peaceful settlement of the situation in the Luhansk region of Donbass. We hope that the Russian Federation will finally begin to implement the security commitment and the Minsk agreement, and we also expect those steps will allow us to move forward on the deployment of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Donbass, which is important to bringing peace back to my country.

I call on the honourable Assembly to continue paying attention to the respect for human rights in occupied Crimea and occupied Donbass. Only with our close attention to those regions will we ease towards prosecutions. I thus call on Assembly members, the Committee of Ministers, the Secretary General, the Commissioner for Human Rights and other relevant monitoring bodies to double their efforts in protecting human rights and freedom.

I return again to my question. Has something changed in the three years since my last statement? Definitely yes. Ukraine has made considerable progress on internal transformation. Despite the existential changes caused by Russian aggression, this year we celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms entering into force in Ukraine. Ukraine continues to implement those commitments as a member State of the Council of Europe while adopting the Council of Europe’s standards on human rights, the rule of law and democracy in its legislation, institutions and practices.

Last week, we laid another firm brick in our human rights defence wall by ratifying protocols 15 and 16 of the Convention. I am grateful to the Council of Europe, including this Assembly, for actively supporting the reform process in Ukraine. The scope of reform currently being undertaken in Ukraine is quite broad. It ranges from the unprecedented financial and banking reform – we are cleaning our financial and banking system, making it strong and reliable – to the decentralisation reform that Madam President mentioned. That decentralisation was one of my first steps as President, and we are now seeing the first results. The development budget for local communities has increased between seven and 10 times during the war, and local budgets and the structure of the united budget is, step by step, reaching 50%.

Looking back at Ukraine’s accomplishments, I am particularly pleased that the Council of Europe’s 2015-2017 action plan for Ukraine has become a common story of success. I am proud that the Council of Europe is a co-sponsor of Ukrainian reform, and we have made progress through the joint work of Ukraine and the Council of Europe. We hope that the draft 2018-2021 action plan will be even more ambitious and successful, and we consider it a tool for further progress and reform.

For us, internal transformation is no less important than the Russian front. I cannot but mention the anti-corruption measures undertaken by my country. We have established unprecedented anti-corruption infrastructure and anti-corruption mechanisms, which are absolutely independent. We have created the important national anti-corruption bureau, a specialised anti-corruption prosecution office and an independent national agency for preventing corruption, which is investigating ministers, members of parliament, local governors and a long list of public servants. The system has already brought positive results, and we now hear more often about criminal cases.

However, the fight against corruption is not about criminal prosecution alone; more important is the establishment of an effective system to prevent this disease, which eroded Ukraine for years following independence. The launch of a system of electronic declaration of the income, expenses and financial obligations of public servants has become one of the most effective tools in the fight against corruption. That measure does not exist in other countries, but it provides efficiency and is perhaps one of the world’s most ambitious government initiatives regarding transparency and accountability before society and its voters.

We pay particular attention to the deregulation and minimisation of the influence of public servants, including with the use of new technologies. The introduction of the ProZorro electronic platform – a totally new and transparent public procurement system – is a brilliant success story. The communications strategy aimed at preventing and countering corruption has also been adopted, and it provides for a routine anti-corruption culture in society. One could reasonably ask whether the anti-corruption glass is half empty or half full. My answer is that it is exactly half full.

The next strategic priority is further to build up the judiciary, and the renewal of social trust in Ukraine. I am sincerely grateful to the Council of Europe for its constant support for that most important reform, which we jointly started back in 2014. The amendment of the constitution regarding the judiciary was adopted with the expert assistance and valuable support of the Venice Commission in 2016, and we implemented every single word of that commission’s recommendations. There are also new laws on the judicial system and the status of judges, the high court council of justice and the constitutional court, and new procedural codes were adopted just a few days ago. Over the next few days, they will come to the presidential office to be signed, and all that has happened in less than three years. As the Venice Commission pointed out recently, such reforms are clearly aimed at reconstructing the Ukrainian justice system in accordance with the standards of the Council of Europe, and at securing the rule of law in Ukraine. That tectonic shift has permitted us to fill the judicial system with new substance, and provided the opportunity for us to build a truly independent judicial branch of power, based on European standards.

A complete reshuffle of the judicial system is under way. It started with the unprecedented re-launch of the supreme court under my initiative. Today Ukraine’s highest judicial institution is being set up from scratch via open competition and with the active participation of civil society. Among the winners of the competition for the post of judges in Ukraine’s new supreme court are lawyers, legal scholars and human rights advocates who have never previously worked as judges, as well as the best judges from all over Ukraine. They have passed a strict and thorough selection, including professional and psychological tests, as well as checks by the national anti-corruption bureau and the national agency for preventing corruption. Of course they must still prove their capabilities in practice, but it should be the best composition of the supreme court in Ukraine’s modern history. The high council of justice decided to submit 111 candidates to be new judges at Ukraine’s supreme court, and I will fulfil the process in the appropriate manner.

According to new rules, the launch of the new supreme court and the entire judicial system will become the point of no return for judicial reform and the successful steps that we have taken within that framework. I know that the creation of the anti-corruption court requires special attention. The creation of such a court is envisaged by law, and I submitted to Parliament measures on the judiciary and the status of judges that were adopted last year. The Venice Commission welcomed that initiative, and mentioned the need for a clean, independent, and efficient anti-corruption judicial body. We are currently considering the optimal way to establish that vital institution, but obviously we must not lose the substance of the reform behind the name.

Efforts invested in the establishment of the anti-corruption court will be successful if four elements are taken into account: first, legislation that complies with the Ukrainian constitution; secondly, independent, politically neutral and unbiased members of the commission should select the judges; thirdly, we need candidates who meet the highest standards of professionalism and integrity; and finally, the newly created court should enjoy the full trust of society. Today, there are some questions about the quality of the draft laws pending in Verkhovna Rada, and particularly about measures on the establishment of an anti-corruption court that have been submitted by a number of members of parliament. Those provisions seek to restore significant influence over the formation of the anti-corruption court to political bodies such as Verkhovna Rada, the Minister of Justice, and the President, and that gives rise to concern. All judicial reform initiated by me sought to create a court system that is completely independent of politicians.

Recent expert opinion from the Venice Commission clearly points out that political influence over the formation of the anti-corruption court is unacceptable because it contradicts European standards and the concept of constitutional reform built on the principle of maximum depoliticisation of the judiciary. That is why all democratic political forces and civil society must unite and work together with international experts to prepare professional, new and consolidated draft laws that are passed by Parliament. The main task for Ukraine is not only to establish the anti-corruption court, but to ensure fair legal proceedings within the framework of a unified and renewed system of justice.

Today, the entire judicial system in Ukraine must be anti-corruption in nature. That is an absolute prerequisite for the restoration of social trust and the strengthening of social unity. We count on the further support of this Assembly for the strengthening of civil society in Ukraine, based on the implementation of democratic standards, support for cultural diversity and the building up of social institutions.

In that regard, I draw the Assembly’s attention to the unreasonable politicisation of the law on education. My stance on education is clear: the nation’s future and security demands quality education and therefore that area should be reformed. Apart from being a significant part of the educational reform, the adopted law has become a law of equal opportunities for each stakeholder in the educational system.

Let me be clear: opportunities must be equal for all pupils, regardless of their origin, residence or nationality. It is unacceptable that children who belong to national minorities in Ukraine do not have an adequate knowledge of the Ukrainian language, which is needed for further education and in universities or institutes, and which is necessary for a professional career, public service, and self-realisation in Ukraine. The law intends to fix that problem. The Ukrainian Parliament has envisaged an improvement in students learning Ukrainian as part of pre-school and primary education, with a view to creating conditions for studying at a higher level in an official language. At the same time, the law safeguards the right of students to learn their native languages at the required level.

I remind the Assembly that the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was adopted in Strasbourg 25 years ago. It stipulates that all commitments related to national minorities should be implemented without prejudice to the teaching of the official language or languages of the State. I believe that the provision of this charter should be applied by all signatories. I reassure you that there would be a guaranteed language right in accordance with the national legislation and with international commitments and standards, including the right to study in a native language.

At the same time, we will provide adequate teaching of the official language, Ukrainian. The best proof of this commitment is our decision to submit the respective article for assessment. It was my instruction to the minister for education and the minister for foreign affairs to send it for the independent assessment of the Venice Commission. I believe its conclusion will lift the controversial interpretation of the law, which is aimed to ensure a decent place for all the national minorities in an integrated Ukrainian society. I am confident that we will implement this assessment of the Venice Commission in our new legislation about education.

There is hardly a more evident example than Ukraine of a nation that has to fight wars on two fronts at the same time – the front of countering external military aggression and the restoration of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the front of implementing difficult and complex reform. They say it is impossible to provide and implement reform in the time of war. Ukraine is now an example that not only is this possible, but we can do it in an absolutely responsible way.

The turning point was the Revolution of Dignity in late 2013 and early 2014. It is symbolic that, on the margins of my visit to Strasbourg, I will inaugurate the star for the heavenly hundred at the Strasbourg alley of stars. It will be a star for those heroes of the Revolution of Dignity who sacrificed their lives for our right to build a new country on the European model, who took the European future of Ukraine as their reason for life, their motivation to struggle against a former regime, and their aspiration for change and transformation in our country. By inaugurating a star for the heavenly hundred, we will commemorate their contribution to the history of Ukraine and of Europe. It is our common duty regarding their memory and sacrifice to be in both France and Ukraine to strengthen common values in a peaceful, stable and prosperous Europe. I believe this will come true thanks to our unity and solidarity. I thank you for this unity and solidarity. I thank you for your attention, your support and your confidence in our country.

Glory to Ukraine and glory to Europe. Thank you.