Mr. Oleksandr Merezhko:

If I forget to answer a question, please remind me because a year ago I had coronavirus and it seems like after that I keep forgetting figures. Regarding the Deputy's last question on non-lethal support, I am not sure if I understood him correctly. We need everything for our army in particular. All kinds of supports are necessary for our army. I can recall being approached by my colleagues in the US who asked me the same question, namely, what we specifically needed for the army in terms of non-lethal supports. I asked my colleague, who is very knowledgeable about this, and he said, "Everything". Unfortunately, this is true especially in wintertime. I read an interesting piece of information today, namely, that North Korea will provide Russia with equipment and clothing for winter. Imagine North Korea trying to help an aggressor state in this way before the winter.

Ukraine needs all kinds of support and we have a very strong movement of volunteers. Common people gather money in order to buy drones, equipment, clothing and everything for our army. That is why we appreciate Ireland's support in providing necessary aid, including humanitarian aid.

Generators are a problem.

Unfortunately, I am afraid that in this situation we can easily predict that Russia will destroy more and more of our energy system and infrastructure. We need generators, especially for schools and kindergartens, which are absolutely necessary to get through the winter.

The question on embassies is very interesting. I often recall, if I am not mistaken, Article 16 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which was a statutory document. To me, this article is an example of how guidelines should be done in the case of a war of aggression. It states very clearly that all contacts, including diplomatic, political and even personal contacts, should be severed with the aggressor state. This is a solution because Russia should be isolated diplomatically. I have taught a course on diplomatic law and even if diplomatic relations are severed, it does not mean that consular relations cannot continue. However, all European and democratic countries should sever diplomatic relations with Russia. That is important symbolically and politically because it increases the isolation of Russia. We should also remember that nowadays the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Russian diplomatic service are not peaceful and constructive. They are also war criminals. They are accomplices to Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity. They are part of the Russian war machine. There should not be any mistake in this regard. They should not be treated as diplomats; they are war criminals. That is why I am in favour of the severance of all diplomatic relations with Russia.

As for prisoners of war and their exchange, unfortunately, I do not know how this mechanism works. When I was involved in a trilateral contact group as the deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation, I knew how that mechanism worked at that time. It was a very complicated and delicate mechanism. Again, it was not about negotiations. It was about communications, which were sometimes very delicate. In our case, and this is a very important difference between Russia and Ukraine, for Ukrainians, each life matters and we are fighting hard for each life and each prisoner of war. We want to return to their families every soldier who was taken as a prisoner of war and is in captivity. We are fighting for each of them because we care. In our constitution, human dignity and human life is the primary and highest social value. That is true. It is a different story for Russia. It does not care about its people or the dead bodies of its people, which it does not want to take back. It does not care about the families of its soldiers who died as recruits in our territory. That is why this process is difficult and very delicate. I can assure the committee that Ukraine is doing everything it can to return all our soldiers. It is especially important because Christmas and the new year is coming and we want to see all our soldiers back. However, I do not know how the mechanism works nowadays.

On Odesa, when Russia made an attempt to withdraw from the grain deal, a line of our ships loaded with grain had formed. There were approximately 146 ships - I do not remember exactly how many - with grain. There was a line of ships waiting for the blockade to lift and the opportunity to leave Odesa. Russia, however, even after the grain deal was concluded, bombed Odesa. The situation now seems more stable but Odesa is constantly under risk of bombardment, which can happen at any moment. Again, we are doing everything we can to restore this grain deal and to export our grain abroad.