What Petras spoke about.

1 Apr

2025

EN Speech

Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine: standing with Ukraine and upholding justice (debate)

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Madam President, Madam High Representative, dear colleagues, the open war against sovereign Ukraine and Ukrainians, conceived and declared by the Russian leadership and waged by the Russian military, is lasting 1133 days. During this long nightmare, the crime of aggression and war crimes have taken the most brutal forms, from the deportation of civilians and theft of children, to the torture and r…

12 Mar

2025

EN Speech

Frozen Russian assets (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the freezing and use of the Russian assets is as inevitable as a paradigm of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Russia's illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, and the losses and damage caused to Ukraine and its people, are among the necessary reparations of the Russian side. International law supports this o…

11 Mar

2025

EN Speech

White paper on the future of European defence (debate)

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Mr President, thank you, it is indeed a special day. Commissioner Kubilius, Minister, dear colleagues, I must repeat myself, what I have written in my speech, sorry for certain repetitions. Exactly 35 years ago on this day, Lithuania declared the restoration of its independence. We knew about the evil Soviet Empire from our own painful experience, but we had no illusions about the better future of…

12 Feb

2025

LT Speech

Need for targeted support to EU regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, Minister. Some countries in the European Union are confronted with natural fatalities, while others are confronted with the fatalities of Russia. And this is sometimes a much more terrible and destructive force, and it must be acknowledged. Russia’s open military aggression against Ukraine has not only changed the geopolitical situation in Europe, but has also led to ec…

11 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s war of aggression (debate)

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Mr President, Madam Commissioner, Minister, dear colleagues, Ukraine, hand in hand with its Western partners, has withstood three years of bloody and devastating aggression by Russia and its proxies. Respecting the immense price paid by defenders of Ukraine and the defenders of our European values, the European Union efforts must now focus on the following. First, the EU, from the very beginning a…

10 Feb

2025

EN Speech

Signature of acts adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (Rule 81)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, taking the floor under Rule 164, and while appreciating our Wednesday debate on the need for targeted support to EU regions bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, let me draw your attention to the great action which happened last weekend once the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian energy was finally synchronised with the European continental energy ring. And this is…

22 Jan

2025

EN Speech

Systematic repression of human rights in Iran, notably the cases of Pakhshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi, and the taking of EU citizens as hostages

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the mullah's regime in Iran survives at the cost of endless repression. Iran's courts have become a place for handling down long prison and death sentences. The confessions of prisoners and detainees are extracted through psychological and physical pressure and torture. Last year was bloody in Iran, with over 900 executions. We continue to call for a…

21 Jan

2025

LT Speech

Need to detect and to counter sabotage by the Russian shadow fleet, damaging critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea (debate)

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Mr President, honourable Commissioner, honourable Minister, honourable colleagues, Russia's intensifying war against the West, our critical infrastructure, our democratic system and our economy, which has not been officially declared but has been going on for years, is a reality today. Damaged telecommunications and power supply cables in the Baltic Sea are not accidental. This is hybrid warfare. …

18 Dec

2024

EN Speech

Continued repression of civil society and independent media in Azerbaijan and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, Anar Mammadli, Kamran Mammadli, Rufat Safarov and Meydan TV

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Mr President, Commissioner, more fossil fuels, fewer political rights and a growing number of political prisoners – this is the reality of Azerbaijan today. The EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation is not worth the price we and the people of Azerbaijan are paying for it, especially as our goodwill in asking the Azeri authorities to allow Sakharov Prize finalist Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu to attend the award c…

18 Dec

2024

EN Speech

11th year of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Crimea, notably the cases of Iryna Danylovych, Tofik Abdulhaziiev and Amet Suleymanov

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Mr President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, Russia's occupation and violation of Ukraine's sovereignty have sunk the Crimean Peninsula into a decade of darkness and oppression. The fierce persecution of Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians, civil society activists and journalists is being carried out in the style of the Soviet NKVD. The cases of the imprisonment of the human rights defender…

27 Nov

2024

EN Speech

Hong Kong, notably the cases of Jimmy Lai and the 45 activists recently convicted under the national security law

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, Communist China has completely engulfed the once‑democratic Hong Kong and drowned it into the Red swamp. China has broken all its international promises in the Hong Kong Handover Treaty and introduced a draconian, anti‑democratic system of coercion. The persecution of Jimmy Lai illustrates Communist China's repressive role in Hong Kong, and is yet an…

26 Nov

2024

EN Speech

Reinforcing EU’s unwavering support to Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression and the increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia (debate)

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Madam President, Mr Commissioner, dear colleagues, Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which has been going on for more than a thousand days, confirms Russia's turn to the path of increasingly open military confrontation with the West and its partners. Russia is expanding the circle of allies of the Axis of Evil, and in addition to the support it has received from Belarus, Iran, China and North K…

23 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Continued war crimes committed by the Russian Federation, notably killing Ukrainian prisoners of war (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the bloody aggression against Ukraine has pushed Russia to the edge of civilisation. Russia has deliberately chosen this path and must pay the price. To create psychological pressure, and led by revenge, the Russian army is systematically killing Ukrainian prisoners of war. There are currently over 170 cases of evidence of such war crimes. These are gen…

22 Oct

2024

EN Speech

State sponsored terrorism by the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of the recent attacks in Europe (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, Iran, a country with ancient and rich traditions and culture, has become a hostage to religious fanaticism, military terrorism and political terror. The Iranian regime cooperates with, supports and directs the criminal activities of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ansar Allah and other terrorist organisations. The Iranian regime does not…

22 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Situation in Azerbaijan, violation of human rights and international law and relations with Armenia (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, first of all, I would like to reassure our opponents for their allegedly unfounded criticism of Azerbaijan: the Council of Europe suspended the country's membership in the Parliamentary Assembly at the beginning of this year – a clear proof. This is the result of a long-term and systematic crackdown by the Baku authorities on political opponents, dissid…

21 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Signature of acts adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (Rule 81)

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Madam President, it is very much a point of order about us and somebody. I would like to draw the attention of my colleagues to a visit of SMER MEP Ľuboš Blaha to Moscow last week, where he thanked Russia for freedom and peace. On behalf of the Informal Group of Friends of European Ukraine, I would like to state that the Russian Government has caused the war in Ukraine, bringing death and destruct…

9 Oct

2024

EN Speech

The cases of unjustly imprisoned Uyghurs in China, notably Ilham Tohti and Gulshan Abbas

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, today we pay tribute to Sakharov Prize laureate Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur human rights defender, who has been in Chinese prison for ten years with a life sentence, and Gulshan Abbas, who was sentenced for 20 years for her sister's criticism of the Chinese regime's oppression of the Uyghurs. This is a very grim reality of communist China, where Beijing is in a…

8 Oct

2024

EN Speech

The democratic backsliding and threats to political pluralism in Georgia (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the actions of the Georgian authorities took the country in a different – non-European, non-Western – direction. The Georgian Government has abandoned its previous commitments to the nation and turned to the path of eastern populism. The public hysteria created by the ruling Georgian Dream party over so-called 'family values' only confirms its decision …

8 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Strengthening Moldova's resilience against Russian interference ahead of the upcoming presidential elections and a constitutional referendum on EU integration (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, colleagues, the efforts of the collapsing Soviet empire, and later Russia, to weaken, divide and influence Moldova can be seen as a classic example of interference in the affairs of other states. Unprecedented political interference, economic influence and a combination of intelligence operations are at the heart of Russian policy in Moldova. By 2020, internally corrupt…

7 Oct

2024

EN Speech

Signature of acts adopted in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (Rule 81)

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Madam President, dear colleagues, on 3 October, the Lithuanian Parliament designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a terrorist organisation. Those activities pose a threat to international security and stability, as the regime in Tehran increasingly and consistently pursues a hostile policy towards the domestic opposition, persecuting and repressing oppon…

18 Sep

2024

EN Speech

The severe situation of political prisoners in Belarus

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Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, Lukashenka has been in power for 30 years and has created a system characterised by social populism, Soviet-style thinking and widespread human rights abuses. There is no place in Belarus for pluralism of opinion and free political activity. Everyone and everything is controlled and opponents are brutally repressed, often at the cost of their lives. We mu…

18 Sep

2024

EN Speech

The deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, the Taliban's systematic and consistent decisions to turn Afghanistan into a radical Sharia territory must be met with a strong response from the civilised world. There is no alternative. Afghan women and girls have become the main target of discrimination and exclusion from public life. They are being excluded from social life, progress and opportuniti…

17 Sep

2024

EN Speech

Continued financial and military support to Ukraine by EU Member States (debate)

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, Russia is ready to continue its aggression against Ukraine, mobilising all possible resources and securing the support of its allies. Western support for Ukraine is an essential condition and option for its survival. We made the right choice in the David and Goliath struggle and we must keep our promise. I call on the EU Member States not only to contin…

25 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews (debate)

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Madam President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, let me first of all thank Guy Verhofstadt for his great contribution during his years in the European Parliament and even beyond for building a more united, better Union which embraces everybody in the European Union. Thank you, Guy. You will remain for me a great example of a European-level statesman. Deepening and widening of the European Union int…

24 Apr

2024

EN Speech

Azerbaijan, notably the repression of civil society and the cases of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu and Ilhamiz Guliyev

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Mr President, Commissioner, dear colleagues, internationally renowned economist Gubad Ibadoghlu spent nine months in prison and was only released to house arrest at the start of this European Parliament session. Interesting. Today, his daughter Zhala is visiting the European Parliament to ask for our continued support to enable Dr Gubad to receive a life-saving operation in Germany. Thank you, Zha…