STATEMENT OF THE UKRAINIAN BAR ASSOCIATION ON MILITARY ACTIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AGAINST UKRAINE

ON 24 FEBRUARY 2022 AT 5.00 AM KYIV TIME RUSSIAN FEDERATION LAUNCHED FULL-SCALE MILITARY ACTIONS AGAINST UKRAINE.

Russian missile strikes affected not only military infrastructure, airfields, warehouses and military control centers, but also all airports in the country and residential buildings. Explosions and shelling take place in Kyiv, Volyn, Odesa, Zaporizhia, Chernihiv, Lviv, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kharkiv oblasts of Ukraine. AUTHORITIES REPORT ABOUT THE DEAD, INJURIED AND MISSING PERSONS AMONG CIVILIANS, AND THEIR NUMBER CONTINUES TO INCREASE. Ukrainian media report on columns of tanks and other military vehicles attempting to cross the state border of Ukraine in Chernihiv, Sumy, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions. In some areas, Russian military uses OSCE identification symbols.

In view with the military actions, martial law was imposed on all the territory of Ukraine starting from 5:30 a.m. of 24 February 2022 for a period of 30 days.

In his speech to Russians citizens, which preceded military actions, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin announced his decision to "conduct a military operation in Donbass to protect people who have been subjected to harassment and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." It is obvious for the world and for Ukraine that "protection of the Ukrainian people" is a pretext for advancement of military contingent into Ukraine thus putting pressure on the Government of Ukraine and forcing Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policies, in particular on EU and NATO membership. A full-fledged war by the Russian Federation is a result of gradual escalation of aggression, political pressure, information and economic wars commenced by the Russian Federation in 2014 and peaking in February 2022.

WE CONSIDER THAT THE ONLY WAY TO STOP MILITARY ACTIONS IS MILITARY RESISTANCE AND APPLICATION OF SUCH SANCTIONS THAT WOULD RENDER A NORMAL FUNCTIONING FO THE RUSSIAN GOVERNEMNT IMPOSSIBLE

In view of this, UBA YET AGAIN CALLS ON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO URGENTLY:

- provide Ukraine with lethal weapons and armour so that to increase Ukraine’s resistance capacity;

- deploy a peacekeeping contingent on the territory of Ukraine to stabilize the situation;

- impose sectoral sanctions against the Russian Federation in areas that are critical to the economy and military sector of the aggressor state;

- to impose PERSONAL SANCTIONS AGAINST POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERSHIP OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THEIR ENTOURAGE WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS, including business elite close to the President of the Russian Federation, senior management of banks and legal entities involved in aggression;

- to disconnect Russian Federation from the SWIFT system and to block Russia's access to the US dollar UNTIL THE COMPLETE WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS FROM UKRAINE, FROM THE BLACK AND AZOV SEAS AND FROM UKRAINE'S BORDERS WITH RUSSIA AND BELARUS;

- to cancel visas by all countries for all citizens of the Russian Federation UNTIL THE COMPLETE WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS FROM UKRAINE, FROM THE BLACK AND AZOV SEAS AND FROM UKRAINE'S BORDERS WITH RUSSIA AND BELARUS.

The full text of the open appeal is available by the link.

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