On October 25, the National Guard of Ukraine posted a video filmed by an NGU serviceman, who captured the phosphorus trailing during the russian shelling. Whereas phosphorus is not classed as a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Geneva Convention bans munitions containing white phosphorus.
During a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg, which took place on October 26, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned russian president putin of the consequences his country would face for using a nuclear weapon in the war with Ukraine. “We’ve communicated that very clearly and directly to the russians, including president putin,” Mr. Blinken said. “We’re concerned.”
konstantin vorontsov, deputy director of the russian foreign ministry's department for non-proliferation and arms control, told the United Nations on October 27 that commercial satellites from the US and its allies could become legitimate targets for russia if they were involved in the war against Ukraine. The United States reacted immediately, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stating that “any attack on US infrastructure will be met with an appropriate response in an appropriate way.”
On October 29, russia’s defense ministry accused Ukraine of launching a drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The ministry blamed “the Kyiv regime,” saying minor damage had been sustained by at least one russian vessel, a minesweeper. russia halted its participation in the grain export agreement, brokered by the UN and Turkey.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that russia had long been planning to ruin the Black Sea Grain Initiative and called on all states to “demand russia to stop its hunger games”.
On October 31, hovewer, 12 ships carrying 354,500 tonnes of food sailed from Ukraine, with their movement having been agreed upon by Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN, while russia had been “informed”.
The preliminary estimates were given by Mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boychenko. He stressed that about 1,300 city’s multistorey buildings were completely destroyed, and 33,000 infrastructure objects were damaged.
Ukrainian Air Forces managed to shoot down 44 out of 50 missiles; however, the rest of the projectiles caused blackouts in seven Ukrainian regions.
Fragments of one of the missiles that were shot down fell on the territory of Moldova. Oazu Nantoi, Moldovan MP, commented on the situation, saying that russia allowance itself to launch missiles over Moldovan territory as it pleases, “ignoring the very fact of Moldova’s existence.”
On October 24, 30 Democratic members of the Progressive Caucus of the US House of Representatives led by Pramila Jayapal penned a letter to Mr. Biden, calling for a dramatic shift in his strategy on russia’s war in Ukraine. The lawmakers urged the US president to slash the economic and military support the US is providing Ukraine and opt for a “proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a cease-fire.” However, after many Democrats fiercely pushed back on the letter, prompting Ms. Jayapal to put out a statement “clarifying” the position outlined in the communication, the chair of the Progressive Caucus retracted the letter on October 25.
On October 25, the First Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform was held in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia. The summit conveyed 57 chairmen of parliaments, inter-parliamentary assemblies, and heads of the relevant committees of foreign parliaments, who discussed the state of affairs in the occupied Crimean peninsula and its reintegration into Ukraine.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi stated that she had come to the Summit to express support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. And the President of the German Bundestag, Bärbel Bas, stressed that russia’s attempts at blackmail would not divide European countries. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who launched the initiative, spoke about the importance of the Crimea Platform for the reintegration of the peninsula into Ukraine following its de-occupation. President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Tiny Cox reiterated PACE’s support for establishing a special tribunal to respond to Russia’s crime of aggression.
Summit participants approved a Joint Declaration, which is to ensure comprehensive support for Ukraine on the issue of the de-occupation of Crimea, as well as the establishment and implementation of an effective parliamentary dimension of cooperation between participating countries. By signing the Declaration, each participating country undertook to consider its content in decision-making at the state level.
After having a meeting with the Vice-President of the German Bundestag from Union90/Greens faction Katrin Goering-Eckardt, co-chair of the Union90/Greens party Ricarda Lang, and chair of the CDU/CSU faction Friedrich Merz on October 25, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said that the lawmakers had demonstrated the deep understanding of Ukraine's needs and readiness to continue support. He stated that “both factions are ready to support an increase in defense aid funding for Ukraine next year to more than 2 billion euros”.
On October 26, the Polish Parliament’s upper house, Senate, passed a resolution recognizing the authorities of the russian federation as a terrorist regime. The resolution states that the russian invaders are terrorizing the inhabitants of Ukrainian cities by bombarding civilian targets, torturing and murdering prisoners of war and civilians in the occupied territories, kidnapping Ukrainian children to raise them as the regime’s Janissaries, deporting, resettling, and sending Ukrainian citizens to russia’s distant periphery. The document accuses putin of returning “to the cruel practices of the Stalinist and Nazi regimes” and notes that russia “must be defeated and deprived of the possibility to endanger its neighbors”.
On October 26, the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism approved two separate agreements with Ukraine and Moldova to make the cross-border transport of goods easier. In particular, the new EU road transport agreements with Ukraine and Moldova would replace existing bilateral transport agreements with EU countries and temporarily facilitate road freight transport, allowing Ukrainian, Moldovan, and EU haulers to transit through and operate between each other's territories, without the need for related permits.
Speaking at a session of the upper house of the Italian parliament on October 26, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pledged support to Ukraine, stressing that the only way to facilitate a peace deal between russia and Ukraine is helping the latter defend itself militarily. “It is the only chance we have for the two sides to negotiate," Ms. Meloni told the Senate.
According to him, as a result of the summit, foreign parliaments would adopt more acts in favor of supporting Ukraine, as the Crimean peninsula is an important element in ending the war. The Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimean Platform took place on October 24-25 in Zagreb. It was organized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine together with the Croatian Sabor and delegations from more than 50 countries and international organizations took part.
Respective resolutions have been registered in the Ukrainian Parliament as those two already are no longer Ukrainian citizens.
According to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Ukraine’s Parliament will adopt the state budget for the next year this week. He also noted that it would be the fastest approved budget for years.
On October 24-25, Program’s leadership Ihor Kogut and Tetiana Bibik participated in the Crimean Platform summit in Zagreb, Croatia, which brought together more than 50 speakers of the world’s parliaments. They met with chairs of departments responsible for interaction with citizens, as well as the Department of Affairs and International Cooperation at the Croatian Parliament. The parties agreed to continue cooperation regarding the exchange of experience in Ukraine’s legislation approximation to EU law and conducting training events aimed at strengthening the capabilities of the VRU Secretariat and committees and ensuring effective parliamentary control, governmental-parliamentary interaction, and the communication strategy of the parliament.
On October 26, leaders of the VRU Secretariat and the parliamentary service of the Croatian Parliament signed a Memorandum on cooperation on European integration, which set the institutional framework in which the USAID RADA: Next Generation Program can assist Ukraine’s Parliament in engaging representatives of the Croatian parliamentary service for training and transferring of experience to Ukrainian colleagues.
On October 26, USAID RADA: Next Generation Program presented the results of the conducted Legislative Quality Index at the International Parliamentary Technical Assistance Coordination Meeting. The new methodology, based on self-assessing, was applied to evaluate the work of the seventh session of the VRU’s ninth convocation. 75 officials participated in the survey, namely politicians, the VRU Secretariat, civil society, and other stakeholders. The legislative process received the lowest average scores for the indicators "legislative capacity" and "quality of expertise," and the highest one was for "observance of procedures."
The demonstrated results of the index of the seventh session proved that the Verkhovna Rada could exercise its powers during wartime, as the index did not decrease compared to the previous session.
During the International Parliamentary Technical Assistance Coordination Meeting (IPTAC) on October 26, Marcin Walecki, expert on parliamentary ethics at Westminster Foundation for Democracy, presented his recommendations on aspects of MPs’ work that could be covered in the MPs’ Code of Conduct. Victoria Podhorna, MP, Head of the sub-group on the Code of Ethics and status of MPs of the Working Group on the preparation of comprehensive proposals for amendments to the laws of Ukraine in the field of parliamentary law, said the Code not only established ethical principles but also attempts to regulate MPs’ ethical behavior. The subgroup proposes to create a separate committee on ethics, which will have the right to recommend sanctions against people's deputies in the amended Code.
On October 25, the Program and the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the National Agency for the Civil Servants, presented the Natolin4CB project, the online platform for the civil servants Natolin4CapacityBuilding. It will strengthen the capacities of the VRU Secretariat, as well as of the European Integration Committee by exposure to EU best practice and exchanges of know-how on legal approximation.
On October 25, the Program organized a coordination meeting for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and representatives from the Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights, the Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development, the Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services, who will be responsible for the PLS pilots. It was agreed that the committee would present the questions to surveys to determine the impact of the adopted legislation.
On October 24, the Program organized coordination meetings with the Parliamentary Education Center and the teams of MPs Mykola Kniazhytskyi, Lviv region, and Ihor Huz, Volyn region. The meetings aimed at coordinating efforts of the Parliamentary Education Center (PEC) educational activity with schools in the aforementioned regions. As a result, on October 26, PEC drafted cooperation with heads of humanitarian departments of local self-governance in the Volyn region regarding arranging online lessons to promote civil and parliamentary education regionally.
from the series of sessions “Parliaments of the World Stand with Ukraine. The lesson will start at 2 pm and will be available via Zoom.
The purpose of the sessions is to identify problems, prioritize them and develop a Roadmap for MPs and their teams for activity in the constituency/region in martial law.