Statement by the Central Committee of AKEL on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

3 March 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The dramatic developments that are taking place in Ukraine in recent times, particularly after Russia's invasion of the territory of Ukraine, have already caused great human and material losses and threaten to assume the dimensions of a generalised confrontation with unforeseeable consequences for the whole of humanity. In the face of these developments, AKEL:

1. Condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calls for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukrainian territories.
2. Calls on all involved parties to put an end to any action that may lead to a generalisation of the armed conflict and to return immediately to the path of dialogue and diplomacy and to commit themselves to the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, which can still provide a peaceful way out.
3. Expresses its solidarity with the Ukrainian people and its support for the families of the victims and the refugees.
4. Stresses that the Russian Federation's action in recognising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions constitutes a violation of the principle of the territorial integrity of states, a backtracking from the Minsk Agreements, and underlines that the respect for the independence and territorial integrity of states and the non-interference in their internal affairs constitute a cornerstone of international law.
5. Stresses that the continuing and systematic violation of human rights in the regions in question over the last seven years, of which the responsibility lies with the Ukrainian government, also constitutes a substantiveviolation of the Minsk package of measures.
6. Underlines that the decisions of the European Union to send substantial military aid to Ukraine, as well as for unprecedented increases in military spending by both the EU and its member states, using the war as a pretext, threatens to make it part of the conflict. Instead of seeking further military escalation, the EU should have been playing a peacekeeping role for de-escalation.
7. The sanctions that have been decided will have knock-on effects and consequences of unpredictable dimensions in terms of both extent and depth, not only for Russia, but for the whole of humanity and especially for Europe too. The heavy price will be paid by the peoples. As far as Cyprus is concerned, the war and thesanctions will hit the economy (tourism, services, livestock farming), which is precisely why the government must take immediate measures to address the consequences.
8. The international community must abandon the double standards policy and the one-sidedinvoking of international law, which undermines international legality and permits the will of the mighty to prevail.