Despite Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko attempting to bar MEPs from visiting the country’s breakaway Donbass region and the formerly Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in Russia, it remains unclear whether such restrictions, if implemented by the EP leadership, would be effective.

Earlier Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani to bar MEPs from travelling to Crimea and Donbass. The Ukrainian leader has condemned previous visits by members of the European Parliament to these regions and urged Tajani to prevent such visits in the future.

However, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a French MEP and a member of the National Front party, told that the possibility of such restrictions wouldn’t be enough to deter him.

“No one can stop me, a people’s representative, from travelling to Donbass if I want to go there. I have convictions, I’m certain that dialogue needs to be continued, and no one can bar me,” he declared.

Schaffhauser added that he’s also extremely concerned about the ongoing implementation of the Minsk agreements.

“The Minsk agreements implied reforms, including autonomy, maintaining financial flow between eastern and western Ukraine, retirement benefits etc. in exchange for restoring Ukraine’s borders. But now they want to restore the borders without conducting reforms! You don’t treat international agreements like that. The Minks agreements must be adhered to,” Schaffhauser said.

He further remarked that Ukraine has apparently become a weapon, and is beng used by certain warmongers to polarize Europe.

“Europeans have gone mad because if a war was to actually break out it would sweep across Europe. We would be the first to suffer from such a war; Europe’s pushing itself to the brink of destruction. We need to return to the negotiation table,” Schaffhauser warned.
