Croatian MEP Nikola Vuljanić spoke in the European Parliament debate this morning on the situation in Ukraine.

He said: “It is the people of Ukraine who are paying the price of this crisis, which began as a movement against unjustified Eastern dictators. Now there is talk of the EU imposing sanctions but how far will sanctions go and what can they achieve?

“Nobody can seriously believe that Russia will leave Crimea peacefully. Russia is no longer a communist country; nor is it a democratic one, not in terms of how we define democracy anyway.

“It is for the Ukrainian people to decide on their own future.”

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