General debate of the Council of Europe just concluded. Main takeaways:
-A register of damages is created to document the damage inflicted upon Ukraine by Russia in the war. It is not clear how are going to get Russia to pay for these damages. There have been calls for a tribunal by some nations, but this has not been taken up by the council (The International Criminal Court does have an arrest warrant out for Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.)
-The council reaffirms and vows to further protect as well as prevent erosion of human rights and democracy, inside a law-based Europe based on personal freedoms
-The council states that it will stick by Ukraine for as long as it takes, and that Russia should withdraw its forces from sovereign Ukrainian territory and obey international law.
-It remains unclear what specific steps Europe is going to take to accomplish the former point, besides ‘following the Ukrainian peace plan’, which according to Ukrainian PM Zelenskyy means “ more weapons, fighter jets, and help to build an air defence system that can bring Ukraine to “100 percent” victory, calls it the “only realistic peace plan” with “100 percent justice”, wants Russia to compensate Ukraine for the damages it caused, and wants a tribunal to bring “those who brought terror” to justice.” (see my note on his opening statement yesterday: substack.com/profile/47… )
Note: I am linking to the previous Note in each of these Notes, so you can click through them and read them all in descending chronological order. Alternatively, visit my profile.
