First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament and Ukraine's envoy in the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup Iryna Gerashchenko criticizes Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland's position on Russia's prospects for the return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

"In an article published by The Financial Times, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Jagland, has publicly reiterated his old position: the return of Russia to PACE without any preconditions. (...) The council's secretary general does not understand that if Europe allows the Russian Federation to violate the basic European principles and human rights, Europe will remain without Europe, it will be another, degrading Europe, and that his statements are self-activity that is not in line with decisions of the CoE Committee of Ministers and PACE resolutions," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook on Monday.

She says that "we live while seeing the European institutions degrading and being weakened by Russia itself." "You can accept this and go along with the tide, or you can realize this and try to resist." The Ukrainian delegation to PACE definitely goes for the other way, but in fact it is the main and right one," Gerashchenko said.

Earlier, Jagland said in an article published by The Financial Times that "the Council of Europe, the leading pro-democracy body in the region, is considering lifting sanctions it imposed over Russia's aggression in Ukraine for fear Moscow could otherwise pull out — dealing a blow to human rights protection."