The Response to the Ukraine Crisis Must Target the Russian Elite Says Green Party Leader Carla Denya. By Adam Colclough

 

Green Party members in North Staffordshire have joined the party’s co-leader Carla Denya in expressing concern at the deepening crisis in Ukraine.

In a press statement she said ‘We stand in solidarity with Ukraine in the face of this unprovoked and outrageous Russian aggression’.

Russian troops entered the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk with president Vladimir Putin claiming they were engaged in ‘peacekeeping’ where it has backed rebel forces fighting the government since 2014.

In a late-night television address Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky struck a defiant note saying his country was ‘not afraid of anything or anyone’, he also called for ‘clear and effective actions of support’ from international allies.

Following the incursion by Russian troops several countries have responded with sanctions.

These included the UK government announcing that five banks would have their assets frozen and three billionaires with links to President Putin would be banned from travelling to the UK, and the German government putting work on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline brining gas to Europe from Russia on hold.

Carla Denya said that the international community must respond to Russian aggression in the region with ‘robust and forceful sanctions’, and the these must be targeted at ‘the Russian leadership and elite whilst minimising the harm caused to ordinary Russians’.

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, ‘the situation in Ukraine is deeply concerning and we stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people in this difficult time’.

Going on to say, ‘we urge our government and those of all other nations to work to find a diplomatic solution to a situation that threatens to put at risk peace in Europe in a way not seen for almost eighty years.’