Decision by the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko No. 154, dated 15 April, 2022

Published on 21 April, 2022

Photo by Anatoly Zhdanov/Kommersant

The tragedy in Ukraine has been going on and even unfolding. No one now can and does not want to answer how many people have really died there. The UN data on the number of those killed can be underestimated at times, which is also recognised by the UN.

The situation is extremely dangerous. The development of events in the direction of further escalation threatens with new huge human casualties, as well as an increasingly likely big war up to a nuclear collision. This must not be allowed.

First. The Yabloko party considers the immediate conclusion of a ceasefire agreement to be an absolute top priority. Serious negotiations on further steps to achieve a truce, and then peace are possible only under the conditions of a ceasefire. In particular, it will be possible to achieve the critically necessary disengagement of troops and other force structures, as well as agree on withdrawal zones for troops and heavy weaponry, and the deployment and mandate of international observers for the observance of a truce. All the parties to the conflict must refrain from steps, including imprudent and provocative statements, that could lead to escalation of hostilities and, even more so, a transfer to the use of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction. Such types of weapons must be unconditionally excluded from the current conflict, as they would inevitably lead to the death of modern civilisation.

Second. The Yabloko party calls for a comprehensive exchange of prisoners, based on the general principle of “all for all”, with obligatory taking into account the personal safety of each prisoner of war. The Party calls for an immediate end to the boundless misanthropic state media propaganda and resolving all humanitarian issues in a humane manner, no matter what territory they may concern, stop using humanitarian issues as an instrument of military and political pressure. The Party is ready, at the slightest opportunity, to take part in this extremely important work in all possible forms.

Third. The Party is convinced of the need for an independent, unbiased investigation of each specific war crime and the adoption of an objective judicial decision based on the results [of such investigation]. Preventing war crimes, regardless of any circumstances, is the unconditional duty of every state and all international structures. Establishing the truth and justice, whoever it may concern, is one of the means of protecting the future peace, shaping of knowledge and conviction, both among the military personnel and among the civilian population, about the inevitability of responsibility for crimes. There is no statute of limitations in such cases, all existing legal institutions will be used, and the missing ones will be inevitably created.

In general, the Party proceeds from the fact that tactical and medium-term agreements between the two states, at the participation of mediators and guarantors, should address the primary task of establishing and maintaining peace, and long-term strategic agreements should be based on the approaches of global strategic stability, peaceful coexistence and good-neighbourly relations of all European peoples, and facilitate peaceful and free development of all countries and peoples.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee