(23 Feb 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vienna - 23 February 2023
1. Mid of US senator Ben Cardin and head of Ukrainian OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) delegation Mykyta Poturaiev sitting down
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Cardin, US senator (D) and head of the U.S. OSCE delegation:
“What they have perpetrated here are war-crimes, crimes against humanity. And then they tried to use propaganda to make it right. We strongly believe that the Russian parliamentarians, all of whom have been sanctioned by the United States, the six that are here, should not have been permitted visas to come to this meeting.”
3. Wide of briefing
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Cardin, US senator (D) and head of the U.S. OSCE delegation:
“If you take a look at what has happened - we have strongly isolated Russia at this meeting. The debate that took place this morning and will continue through tomorrow has made it clear, that Russia must be held accountable for the atrocities that they have committed.”
5. Wide of briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mykyta Poturaiev, head of Ukrainian OSCE delegation:
“Let’s not forget that in Ukraine they’re killing every day the elderly, men, women, children, kids, newly born and even unborn, because a lot of Ukrainian pregnant women were killed together with their unborn children.”
7. Various of Poturaiev and Cardin posing for photos with other officials
STORYLINE:
Representatives from the U.S. and Ukraine stated their disapproval of Russian lawmakers being admitted to attend the parliamentary assembly for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on Thursday.
The head of the U.S. delegation, Sen. Ben Cardin, told reporters that the delegation supported excluding the Russians from the meeting.
“We strongly believe that the Russian parliamentarians, all of whom have been sanctioned by the United States, the six that are here, should not have been permitted visas to come to this meeting," Cardin said.
The Democratic senator from Maryland said he thought Ukraine's supporters nonetheless “have strongly isolated Russia at this meeting".
"The debate that took place this morning and will continue through tomorrow has made it clear that Russia must be held accountable for the atrocities that they have committed,” Cardin added.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Mykyta Poturaiev, said during the joint press conference with Cardin that his country has drafted an amendment stating that any OSCE country that starts a war against another member should be suspended from the group.
A meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's parliamentary assembly got underway Thursday without the Ukrainian delegation, which described the presence of Russian lawmakers as “an affront.”
The two-day meeting of the normally low-profile assembly is coinciding with the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.
The attendance of the Russian lawmakers has overshadowed the event.
Austria granted them visas even though they are under European Union sanctions and despite protests from 20 countries including Britain, France and Canada.
Austria's government said that as host nation it was obliged to grant visas to representatives from all OSCE member nations.
Ukraine said its delegates wouldn't attend if the Russians were present, as did Lithuania.
AP video shot by: Philipp Jenne.
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