Victor Pinchuk Foundation and YES held discussion “Is It Impossible to isolate Russia?” during the YES meeting in Kyiv “Two Years - Stay in the Fight”

On 24 February 2024, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Yalta European Strategy (YES) held a discussion “Is It Impossible to isolate Russia?” on the occasion of the YES meeting in Kyiv “Two Years - Stay in the Fight” dedicated to the second anniversary of Ukraine's resistance to the full-scale invasion of Russia. Speakers discussed Ukraine’s fight for life, freedom and rule-bases order as well as how to aid Ukrainians’ victory in this fight for us all.

Members of this panel included: Don Davis, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives; Andrius Kubilius, Member of the European Parliament; Chair, Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly; Alex Sobel, Member of Parliament; Co-Chair Ukraine Group, House of Commons of the United Kingdom; Tamila Tasheva, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Office of the President of Ukraine. Nataliya Gumenyuk, Ukrainian journalist, Founder of Public Interest Journalism Lab and The Reckoning Project, moderated this panel.

Nataliya Gumenyuk began the discussion by posing a larger question to the speakers, not just asking them to consider whether it is possible to isolate Russia, but also to consider how?

Alex Sobel, Member of Parliament; Co-Chair Ukraine Group, House of Commons of the United Kingdom began the conversation by suggesting we look at another example of how we have successfully isolated a rogue state, North Korea. He laid out a few tactics he believes the world should adopt to achieve Russian isolation, “First, we need to strengthen direct sanctions on trade. Our sanctions are not strong enough, unfortunately big western companies are still trading in Russia. Just this week I started a campaign against Mondelez, whose CEO recently stated that investors do not take a moral position on whether a company is actively trading with Russia. I, and a group of other MPs have started a campaign against them. We must directly ensure western companies are not selling in Russia. Secondly, we must stop the use of third countries to facilitate import and export of sanctioned goods to Russia e.g. oil, and non-military drones, thirdly, the frozen Russian assets must be seized and repurposed to Ukraine - there is absolute political consensus in the UK that this must be done, the issue is timing, the Conservative Party was not ready to act when we laid this before Parliament last year, fourthly, we must cease all direct flights between NATO countries and Russia, and last, but not least, we must set-up a special tribunal to try Putin and other leaders of the war for war crimes.”

Tamila Tasheva, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Office of the President of Ukraine, told: “It is important to note that although we don’t have a Ukrainian navy our armed forces are actively influencing the Crimean peninsula, we are reaching the Kerch bridge and reaching military bases and other military objects in Crimea. We have a very positive reaction from the local population to this. We are monitoring very closely what people in Crimea are saying and have seen some classified research (including both pro-Russian and pro-Crimean groups) which confirms that if we destroy the Kerch bridge it will disprove the myth of Russian power on the peninsula.

We didn’t react properly in 2014 and now we have this situation in 2022, and 2024. Thousands and thousands of our people are dying in this war.

If we are really talking about the isolation of Russia, we should now have the courage to reconquer the Crimean peninsula – to get the weapons we need to allow us to hit the targets in Crimea. Let’s not be scared.”

Don Davis, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives, and former USAF officer, said: “The reason I am here is because I realise that there has been a lot of politics taking place in the US and there is a lot on the line. I listened to a soldier earlier and he made clear that while these conversations are taking place there are many that are giving their lives for Ukraine. I want to be clear, that we are doing everything we can, that I believe that we will deliver, and we will stand with Ukraine. I served my country in the USAF. There is no way it is possible to isolate Russia without a complete force – and an air force in particular. With that, it is important that we create a pipeline – to have more trained pilots for the future.”

Andrius Kubilius, Member of the European Parliament; Chair, Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, made forceful comments about the way the West should approach the issue of isolating Russia, asking, “Why is the West, including the EU and the US, still afraid to say that Russia needs to be defeated. When we say this, we will have a much clearer answer to the question of how we can isolate the country.

My understanding is very simple – the West needs to have a clear plan for the victory of Ukraine.  And our support to Ukraine needs to be two or three times more than we are delivering now.”

Photos are available here

Video is available at the Victor Pinchuk Foundation YouTube channel

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