Ukrainian Parliament Speaker: Serbs Are Not Little Russians

(BETAPHOTO/SKUPSTINA SRBIJE/Pedja Vuckovic)

Ruslan Stefanchuk, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine, in Belgrade on July 7 said that “Serbs are not little Russians,” and neither are Ukrainians, Moldovans or Georgians, adding that they are independent nations that belong to the European family.

“The Soviet Union and Russia have been sowing hostilities among states, and that price is measured in immeasurable human suffering. That is why today in Belgrade I want to say clearly - Serbs are not little Russians, Ukrainians are not little Russians, Moldovans and Georgians have never been and will never be little Russians,” Stefanchuk told a conference of parliament speakers of the European Union (EU) candidate countries.

We have had enough of such humiliation, he said, adding that these countries are independent states inhabited by European peoples, noting that “one day they will certainly become members of the EU.”

Stefanchuk also said that the EU has unreasonably slowed down the enlargement process, adding that the incompleteness of European unification sends wrong signals to countries that want to become part of the EU, but also to those that want to weaken Europe.

He said that such party is “aggressive, dictatorial and anti-European Russia,” which is why the new wave of EU enlargement should be “as wide and strong as possible.”

Belgrade is hosting the two-day Conference of parliament speakers of the EU candidate countries, which is discussing the role of national parliaments in EU integration and models for empowering interparliamentary cooperation among the candidate countries. 

Aside from the parliament speakers of Serbia and Ukraine, present at the conference are representatives of the parliaments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Georgia, and Moldova, as well as Serbian European Integration Minister Nemanja Starovic, Deputy Head of EU Delegation to Serbia Plamena Halacheva, Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Marcel Pesko, and ambassadors of several countries.