Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
For us it's a great honour to be present for the second time for a meeting with your committee. I really appreciate it.
Today I will speak very briefly and very precisely about some concrete facts we want to share with you. At the moment, unfortunately, we have escalation of all the things in Ukraine from the Russian side. We spoke about some of these very concrete things during our previous meeting, but I want to mention them again.
The first one is Crimea. In Crimea, they're very worried about two major things. The first one is the huge militarization of the peninsula, especially taking into account that the bridge has been finished. I think the possibilities to move additional forces to Crimea now will increase drastically.
The second point is a full restoration of the nuclear weapons facilities on the peninsula. Already officials, not just journalists, from the Russian Federation have mentioned that they have totally restored nuclear weapons facilities in Crimea—for example, at Balaklava. Balaklava is where the special facilities and the nuclear weaponry warehouse are.
There are also some unofficial data showing that there were some trials to move ships from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol with nuclear weapons on board.
The next point is on MH17. All of you know, of course, about the recent results from the Netherlands commission, and it was proven that this aircraft with people on board was downed by the 53rd Brigade from the Russian Federation. What we see now is that Russians, during all the international conferences and meetings, are trying to keep silent on that topic and to just forget it, because they understand that while discussion on that topic has started, there are no arguments against it. We need to not allow them to just forget about it and keep silent.
The next point is on Nord Stream 2. At first glance, some Europeans are trying to show this project as commercial and not even political. However, I am speaking about this particular topic here during your committee meeting because we in Ukraine clearly understand that this not commercial at all. It's not even political. It is a totally military project.
One of the big reasons Russia didn't mount a huge offensive in 2014 and 2015 was the presence of this pipeline and the delivery of gas to Europe. Russians understand clearly that in the case of a huge offensive, this pipeline has every chance of being destroyed and gas supplies to Europe would be stopped. Of course, they would lose money and relations with some European countries, etc. When Nord Stream 2 is created, Russians will switch all Ukrainian gas to this pipeline, and this reason will disappear.
We have to believe in that, despite a lot of messaging from the Russian Federation that they will continue the transit of gas through Ukraine, etc. I want to remind you of a concrete fact about Nord Stream Line 1, the pipeline that was created several years ago. Nord Stream Line 1 was created and supported by the European Union because the Russian Federation promised that this pipeline would be used exclusively for delivering new gas from the new Shtokman gas field in Russia. Immediately after Nord Stream Line 1 was created, everybody forgot about the new gas field, and they just switched the gas from the Ukrainian pipeline to Nord Stream Line 1. We can clearly see it in figures, because these figures are open, and we can see what they're delivering through Nord Stream Line 1, through the Ukrainian pipeline, and through the other pipelines.
Last but not least is a general issue. Later we will come, with our colleagues, to the more particular issues related to the impasse and all the things related to Russian aggression.
At the moment, of course, there is the eastern front line and there is occupied Crimea, but we also need to always remember the sea boundaries of Ukraine, because according to our information Russians now are very closely analyzing the possibilities for organizing an offensive through the sea boundaries of Ukraine. We have sea boundaries all around Crimea, starting from the Donetsk region and finishing in the Odessa region near Transnistria. This topic also is very important in discussing possible steps and actions by the Russian Federation.
That briefly gives you the general idea.
Now I'll share a few concrete words about Donbass, and then I'll pass the floor to my colleague, who will help me.
When speaking about Donbass, we need to clearly understand what's going on inside it. First of all, they have a very strict chain of command from the Russian Federation. Starting from the platoon level, going from platoon to company to battalion to brigade, these are regular Russian officers.
What armies are we speaking about, and what number of people are there at the moment? There are around 40,000 people on the occupied territories. Of them, 70% are regular Russian officers or foreign terrorist fighters from the Russian Federation, people who are classed now as “on vacation” but who are army servicemen or people who have just finished their army service who signed a contract and went to the Ukrainian territory.
That's for your understanding. There are about 40,000 people, and at least 70% of them are regular Russians and foreign terrorist fighters from the Russian Federation.
As for techniques, we will spread out a special presentation here, but just for your understanding, on the occupied territory Russia now has around 500 tanks, around 800 artillery systems, more than 200 multiple rocket launch systems—I mean Grads—and truly, the numbers are more than what France and Germany have together. I think one reason they are strongly against closing the border is that when the border closes, the question will be how to remove all these tanks and artillery from the occupied territory. All these tanks and artillery have numbers, and it's easy to find out when and where they were produced. Generally it's like that.
Also, recently, together with the OSCE PA delegation, I was on the front lines personally. People from our delegation—Finland, Sweden, Germany, Georgia—noticed firing, because even during the minutes that we were on the front line there was a huge cannonade, with artillery, mortars, everything.
We also visited the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission's UAV centre. They told us that all the UAVs are jammed as they start to move towards the uncontrolled part of the border, because, as we understand clearly, every day Russia is moving ammunition, field forces, tanks, etc. through the uncontrolled part of the border, and even more.
This is so cynical. For example, they are delivering so-called “humanitarian convoys”. We know exactly when “humanitarian convoys” have arrived: there will be an increase in shellings, because they're delivering ammunition. Even if some international organizations try to see what is inside the humanitarian convoys, it's prohibited—prohibited by Russians.
That gives you the general idea about this issue.
Let me pass the floor to Yurii Levchenko, and afterwards we will be ready to answer all your questions about these issues.