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Oleksiy Goncharenko, Ukrainian MP: “The creation of an ad hoc criminal court is very important”

Audio 03:16

Firefighters clear debris from a damaged building in Odessa, southern Ukraine, on April 24, 2022. © Oleksandr Gimanov / AFP

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3 mins

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on Thursday 28 April for the creation of an "

" to try " 

 ", including senior Russian leaders.

To promote this initiative, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko traveled to France.

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RFI: You closely follow everything that happens on the ground in Ukraine.

What is really happening on the front line in recent days

Oleksiy Goncharenko

There are a lot of fights in the east of our country, in the south of our country, near my hometown of Odessa.

Odessa is also the largest Ukrainian French city.

The first governor of Odessa was the Prime Minister of France, the Duke of Richelieu [named in 1803 by Tsar Alexander I, editor's note], after the restoration of the Bourbons.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of missile strikes all over the territory of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Kyiv, the capital, was

[Antonio Guterres] was in Kyiv on a visit.

What exactly does Russian President Vladimir Putin mean with these strikes

The symbol is that Putin says: “ 

 “I think everyone has to react.

Can Odessa have the same fate as Mariupol

I don't want to think about the possibility of the destruction of Odessa.

But

today is a symbol like Auschwitz, Buchenwald, like Guernica, like Coventry, like Stalingrad, like Aleppo.

This is the new symbol of the terror of war.

You talked about the reaction from the entire international community.

France and other European countries are increasingly delivering arms to Ukraine.

Is this enough for you and what do you expect from Europe

First, I would like to say thank you very much to France, to the nation.

I would also like to say thank you to the ordinary French people who help the Ukrainian refugees a lot.

We want more weapons, we want more sanctions against Russia.

Firstly, an embargo on

is very important for the European perspective of our country because for our people it is a symbol of support.

Because today Ukrainians are dying for these values ​​and for Europe.

And I think after that we have to join the European political family.

You have returned from Strasbourg where the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was held, where Russia is no longer present.

What exactly happened during this session

It was a very important session and that is why I left Ukraine for the first time in two months, because there were some postponements of resolutions on the situation in Ukraine.

And the second resolution that was approved on Thursday is very important for us, to demand

against Russia's military and political leaders, to make it possible to arrest and to question Putin.

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