2023-09-26 04:31:32
An Austrian parliamentary delegation arrived in Kiev on Tuesday morning. On Monday evening, the delegation, which included National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), parliamentarians Wolfgang Gerstl (ÖVP), Christian Oxonitsch (SPÖ), Helmut Brandstätter (NEOS) and Georg Bürstmayer (Greens), no one from the FPÖ was there, initially Lviv (Lviv) was received by Mayor Andrij Sadowyj in the city’s town hall.
Sadowyj reported to MPs that five million displaced people had passed through his city since the start of the war. Lviv is now home to 150,000 refugees. According to the mayor, several large hospital projects are planned in Lviv, because there are around 90,000 people in the whole of Ukraine who need prostheses. “We want to share our experience in building medical infrastructure with other Ukrainian cities,” Sadowyj emphasized.
The war is still omnipresent in Lviv, although it does not seem so at first glance. There is at least one air raid alert every day and then the citizens of Lviv have to go to one of the 4,800 air raid shelters in the city, the mayor said. But no one wants to think regarding giving up, because Ukraine only has two options: “victory or defeat.” “Today we are defending European values in Ukraine,” the mayor reiterated.
Psychological support for Ukraine is important, said Brandstätter, who is also chairman of the bilateral parliamentary group Ukraine/Moldova/Belarus. It is always impressive what an “incredible spirit” there is here in Ukraine, said the NEOS MP, who is in Ukraine for the fourth time since the start of the war. The ÖVP MP Gerstl emphasized how important it is to form your own opinion, because the first thing that falls in war is the truth.
In Kiev, the MPs will visit the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, and hold bilateral talks there. Sobotka will give a speech in a plenary session. The parliamentary delegation will then visit a Caritas aid project in Irpin. We then continue to Butscha, around 25 kilometers north of Kiev, where the parliamentarians will hold a minute’s silence at a mass grave following visiting a photo exhibition in St. Andrew’s Church.
After the return trip to Kiev, the Austrian parliamentarians are scheduled to lay a wreath at the Memorial Wall for Ukraine’s fallen defenders before taking part in a ceremony honoring the victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine and visiting the Holodomor Museum. The delegation will then hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal.
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