Verkhovna Rada deputies have proposed that the Ukrainian parliament react to the attempts at lifting restrictive measures on the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in evasion of resolutions and that parliaments of Council of Europe member states be notified that such actions would imply the Assembly's political incapacity.

A draft statement by the Verkhovna Rada on the PACE situation was submitted on September 17, and the draft's text and related documents were published on Tuesday. The draft was co-authored by head of the Ukrainian permanent delegation to the PACE Volodymyr Ariev and a number of deputies.

The draft proposed that the Verkhovna Rada "condemn the attempts at lifting restrictive measures on the Russian permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in evasion of the Assembly's resolutions, as well as amendments to statutory documents, which would modify fundamental principles of the organization."

The authors urged the Verkhovna Rada to appeal to parliaments of Council of Europe member states over the PACE situation in a statement, which was also published on the Ukrainian parliament's website.

According to the draft, the Verkhovna Rada recognized the clear requirements set for Russia by PACE resolutions, which were passed "in response to Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine," as appropriate and founded, and stated that Russia had yet to make progress in their fulfillment.

The authors called on the Verkhovna Rada to declare that "the existent regulatory system, which envisages the challenging of powers of national delegations from the angle of their essence and formal features, is an effective mechanism of the PACE's control over member states' compliance with principles and values of the Council of Europe."

"As the dismantlement of institutional foundations would imply the recognition by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council's Europe of its political incapacity to implement the Assembly's decisions and the public demonstration of a deviation from the Council of Europe's values and principles, such as the supremacy of law, democracy, and human rights, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and its permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will have to make a comprehensive revision of fundamentals and mechanisms of its cooperation with the Assembly," the draft said.