The Parliament of Moldova condemned yesterday the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling it in a declaration "genocide" because of Moscow's actions towards children in the occupied territories, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
The agency notes that Moscow-friendly opposition parties in parliament refused to participate in the vote.
Sixty MPs from Moldova's 101-seat parliament voted in favor of the declaration, joining the parliaments of several other countries that have adopted similar documents and offered to continue extending support to Ukrainians fleeing the conflict.
The war, which has been going on for more than two years and was rejected by the pro-European Moldovan president Maya Sandu, is affecting Ukraine's neighboring country, showering it with a large number of debris from drones and missiles falling on its territory.
The Deputy Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Doina German, has documented the number of children killed or missing in the conflict, along with the approximately 20,000 children taken to Russia, according to the Ukrainian government.
Finland's parliament should reject proposed laws that would prevent migrants from entering the country across its long, forested border with Russia, the country's non-discrimination ombudsman Kristina Stenman said, as cited by Reuters and BTA.
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Last week, the government proposed emergency laws to allow border guards to turn back migrants trying to cross the 1,340 km long border.
Finland believes Moscow is encouraging the border crossing in response to Helsinki joining NATO, which is backing Ukraine against Russian invasion. The Kremlin denies this claim. The Finnish government itself has stated that the proposed legislation would be in violation of the country's commitments in the field of asylum, but the situation calls for strict measures.
It is not yet certain whether the law will receive the necessary majority in the vote in the plenary hall of the parliament.
„There are alternatives to the unconstitutional border security law... The commissioner does not support passing the bill," Stenman wrote in a memo to Parliament.
In practice, the proposed bill would give authorities the ability to force people to leave Finland in unsafe and dangerous situations, the ombudsman said.
Finland closed its border crossings in December after more than 1,300 migrants from third countries, including Syria and Somalia, arrived there in the previous months.
Finnish laws already include options to set up organizing centers to process migrant applications, and the European Union has also approved a crisis regulation due to enter into force in 2026, Stenman noted.
The (EU) regulation envisages responding to migration while respecting the return ban, although it also contains challenges from a human rights perspective, the ombudsman said.