During her visit to London on May 9, 2018, the First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko took participated in a roundtable discussion at the Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs, themed “The Conflict in the Donbas: the Human Dimension”.

She informed experts from leading UK think-tanks of the current security and humanitarian situation in the Donbas.

Since the spring of 2014, Eastern Ukraine has been affected by the conflict that is sustained by Russia. With some parts of Donbas occupied by separatist militias and others - controlled by Kyiv forces, the lives of civilians have been severely impacted. The UN estimates that over 4.4 million civilians are affected by the conflict, with some two thousand servicemen killed.

During the deliberations, Iryna Herashchenko reported on a number of issues of the TCG’s humanitarian subgroup, which still remain to be frozen.

The First Vice-Speaker drew the attention of the conferees that international humanitarian missions are completely debarred from visiting the illegally detained Ukrainians either in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or in the Russian Federation.  Apart from that, I. Herashchenko notified that under such conditions the Kremlin's hostages and political prisoners continue to be tortured.

During the roundtable, the participants also had discussions over the prospects for the introduction of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Donbas, the de-militarization of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and their further reintegration.

The First Deputy Chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament Iryna Herashchenko turned heads of those in attendance through her stiff statement that the densely belligerent external policy of the Russian Federation alongside its utterly wilful neglect to the obligations taken do require far tougher sanctions to be imposed.

The politician also expressed her persuasion that in the near future Russia would try hard to destabilize the situation in Europe and in Ukraine, in particular.

http://iportal.rada.gov.ua/en/news/News/157743.html