Radebeul Ukraine Resolution

Joint resolution of the Lord Mayor and the parliamentary groups Bürgerforum/Grüne-SPD, CDU, Freie Wähler, FPD and Linke of the Radebeul City Council

The sovereignty of a country is not negotiable!

Help and support for Ukraine, for our twin city Obukhiv

The bewilderment at the start of Russian aggression is increasingly giving way to indignation and anger: in the middle of Europe, a country, Ukraine, is becoming the scene of Putin's military aggression. However, war must never again be a legitimate political tool in Europe. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law. Europe's peace order is at stake - this is a danger for the whole of Europe, for all of us.

The right of peoples to self-determination and the sovereignty of countries are the cornerstones of the European peace order, of coexistence in Europe. This is not negotiable.

We in East Germany in particular are ashamed to remember the stigma when the Prague Spring was crushed by military force under Soviet leadership from our soil in 1968. However, we also remember with joy and respect the self-determined realisation of the restoration of German unity in 1989/90 in the intellectual environment of glasnost and perestroika.

An aggressor can only be stopped with consistency and rigour. We therefore welcome the fact that tough and consistent sanctions are now being taken against Russia. We also consider the delivery of weapons to be justified in the current situation, especially as a clear sign of support for our Eastern European neighbours.

Of course, sanctions can and will hurt us too. But this price is small compared to the long-term consequences of letting the Russian aggressor get away with it.

We stand by the people in Ukraine, we stand by the people in our twin city of Obukhiv and we stand by the civil society forces in Russia and Belarus who are rebelling against this war. They deserve our solidarity and support. They can rely on that. We are organising aid for people in Ukraine and will offer refugees shelter, protection and safety.

However, this aggression is an equally relentless reminder of the need for a decisive shift in German policy towards a realpolitik in close coordination with our partners in the European Union. This applies in particular to the areas of energy supply, infrastructure and defence.