The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima considers unacceptable the increasing presence of the armed forces of the Russian Federation near Ukraine’s borders and in the occupied Crimean Peninsula since the beginning of 2021, according to the Statement of the Committee on the security situation in Europe, adopted on Tuesday, 11 January.

The Statement calls on the Russian Federation to de-escalate the situation and respect its international obligations and its responsibility to ensure transparency of military activities in accordance with the principles of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Vienna Document.

“The Committee also recalls the obligations of the Russian Federation under international agreements and expects the Russian Federation and the separatists it supports in the Donbas and Luhansk regions to respect the ceasefire agreement, to constructively engage in the Normandy format talks, and to immediately release all illegally detained and imprisoned Ukrainian citizens.

The Statement underlines the sovereign right of countries to choose their own paths of development, cooperation partners, as well as the importance of allies making a united and decisive response based on shared principles in deterring the Russian Federation.

Members of the Committee insist that the choice of any country to join NATO cannot be conditional on the consent of a third country, and point out that the values and fundamental principles of collective defence shared by the NATO alliance are firm and non-negotiable.

The Committee calls on the governments of NATO and EU Member States and their allied partner governments to continue coordinating the development of intensified restrictive measures to deter the Russian Federation from further escalating the situation.

Members of the Committee support NATO’s open-door policy and the agreement reached at the 2008 NATO Summit Meeting of Heads of State and Government in Bucharest that Ukraine and Georgia would become members of NATO”, - reads the statement.