The Belarusan National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum issued an appeal “About Russian military intervention in sovereign Ukraine”.

President of the Republic of Belarus

President of the Russian Federation

U.S. President

European Council

EU Council of Ministers

Appeal
of Belarusan National Platform
of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

“About Russian military intervention in sovereign Ukraine”

March 3, 2014

We, citizens and representatives of civil society organizations of the Republic of Belarus, condemn Russian military intervention in sovereign Ukraine, accompanied by introduction of Russian military forces on the territory of the Crimea and the armed seizure of strategic facilities and communications by the Russian military, as well as blocking of Ukrainian military bases.

For this intervention Vladimir Putin on March 1, 2014 received permission from the Federation Council to use military force in Ukraine. Several days before in invasive actions of Russia towards Ukraine, Russian military forces were used in the Crimea on the basis of the Kharkiv agreements on basing the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, signed by Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Yanukovych in 2010.

Russian Federation with regard to Ukraine violated the fundamental and universally recognized principles and norms of international law, which gives reason to Ukraine to implement the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense, enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. Military intervention in the Crimea violates Russia's obligations under international treaties, including the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as well as the Memorandum of maintaining peace and stability in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

We urge the Russian Federation to immediately stop military intervention, including action to blockade and disarmament of Ukrainian military, capture and retention of strategically important objects. We demand an end to Russian interference in the affairs of a sovereign state of Ukraine!

We urge the leadership of the Republic of Belarus to take no action on the participation of Belarusan military actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, and recall that such actions by the agreement in the CSTO.

We call upon the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum to take immediate steps to fulfill their obligations to protect the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine. In this regard, we also favor the prompt action of the international community aimed at resolving the military standoff between Russia and Ukraine that threatens to escalate into a bloody war. First of all, we see them as such action on the peaceful nature of political pressure on Russia to abandon its military intervention in Ukraine. We propose to adopt a decision on the suspension of Russia's membership in the G8, G20 and WTO, to stop the importation of Russian dual-use technologies that can be used in hostilities, freeze the assets of Russian officials responsible for military intervention in Ukraine, as well as the assets of the companies producing military products in the EU and the U.S. We also offer in relation to the Russian military intervention to consider the question of depriving Russia the right to host the FIFA World Cup 2018.

We believe that today, the most important is to prevent large-scale armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. This conflict can lead to mass casualties, including victims among the civilian population, which may fall and ethnically Russian, whose rights allegedly protects Russia. As a result of war in the Crimea and Ukraine can become environmental problems that are insurmountable in the short term perspective, conversion of resorts, natural systems and agricultural lands into uninhabitable area.

We urge all sides to avoid a new war, a new humanitarian, ethnic, economic and environmental disaster!

We appeal to our colleagues from other countries in the framework of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership to express joint attitude of civil society of the Eastern Partnership to the situation.

Belarusan civil society organizations, participants of Belarusan National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership (over 60 CSOs)

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