UWC calls for further sanctions against the Russian Federation

On 28 January 2015 Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij called for increased targeted sanctions against the Russian Federation, including the blocking of access to the SWIFT financial transaction system, in a letter issued to High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini. 

The UWC draws the attention of the European community to the senseless crimes against humanity being committed by the Russian Federation which continues to support the terrorists decimating the civilian population in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts with indiscriminate rocket fire into high density residential areas. The killings in Volnovakha, Donetsk and Mariupol are examples of deliberate targeting of innocent men, women, children and the elderly in an attempt to further destabilize the country.  



Citing the European Parliament resolution of 15 January 2015 on the situation in Ukraine which unequivocally reaffirmed the European Parliament’s support for Ukraine, and the most recent assertion of the so-called Donetsk people’s republic that it will push forward with its offensive, the UWC appealed for further intervention from the European Union by:

• increasing targeted sanctions against the Russian Federation, including limiting the ability  of Russian entities to conduct international financial transactions by blocking access to the SWIFT  banking transaction system;
• designating the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics as terrorist organizations; and
• 
  declaring that the Russian Federation is a state sponsor of terrorism.