The Ukrainian delegation will now spoil not only Russia, but the entire PACE

The new Ukrainian delegation to PACE “should be a terrible child, create problems, make sure everyone feels the consequences of what happened,” in celebration of Russia’s return to the international stage.

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe Dmitry Kuleba stated this in an interview with Censor, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“We will not miss a single opportunity to firmly protect our interests and prevent our opponents from protecting their interests. This is exactly what the approach will be.

That is, relatively speaking, some question arises that interests the Russians; if earlier, if it did not concern Ukraine, we would not have paid attention, now we will pay attention to it and block it.

If they expect us to take certain constructive steps that are too soft, and previously we could have taken this in the spirit of constructive cooperation, now we will take a tough position, and it will be extremely difficult to persuade us to do something.

The main principle will be not to miss the opportunities that diplomatic life can provide and to create your own opportunities,” said the permanent representative.

“I believe that the main task now is to prevent the scaling of what happened in PACE to other formats of our relations with European partners or institutions. That is, in order to encapsulate what happened in PACE, and not allow this model, when the interests of Russia are fully taken into account, and the interests of Ukraine are not taken into account at all, so that it does not continue to work like dominoes in other formats. This is goal number one for me,” Kuleba emphasized.

In addition, he directly called Russia’s return to PACE “a slap in the face to Ukraine that needs to be answered.”

“For me, as an ambassador and as a citizen, one thing is important: tactically there may be different decisions - there may be a decision not to go to the Assembly session in October, there may be a decision to go - both decisions are acceptable, but the fundamental principle must remain unchanged that what happened – Russia’s return to PACE, the way it happened, is unacceptable. Ukraine was slapped in the face, and we must respond to it. Dot. You can’t swallow it, you can’t leave it unanswered.

If we leave this unanswered, if we do not even allow our partners, who, unfortunately, in this situation played against us and ignored our interests, to feel the negative consequences for us, then by doing this we will only encourage everyone to treat us this way in the future ", said the diplomat.

At the same time, in his opinion, the Ukrainian delegation has a chance to take revenge for its humiliation on the entire Council of Europe through its behavior on international platforms.

“[The question is not whether or not to be in PACE], the question is how to be. That is, to come and walk quietly, agree with everything and sit in silence - I will categorically oppose this, although I respect the right of parliamentarians to take any position. But, it seems to me, you can return to work in the Assembly and work there in this way, you know, there is such a beautiful French expression “enfant terrible” - a terrible child, so - to be a terrible child, create problems, make sure that everyone feels the consequences of what happened,” said the permanent representative.

“The speech of the Ukrainian delegation at previous sessions was not yet a “terrible child”? Singing the anthem on the sidelines, performing in rubber gloves, and so on, isn’t that the end yet?” – the presenter clarified.

“I’ll tell you this: a terrible child is different from a terrible child. You can be a terrible child in different ways. Previously, we had a bright delegation with a powerful composition and approach to work, with its own emotional and internal political nuances, but they did everything they could, the way they understood the situation, based on the tools they had. I think the new delegation should remain a cute, ugly child, but in a slightly different way: change the form of behavior, but not change its essence,” said Dmitry Kuleba.