Ukraine delegate slams Russian presence at Geneva gathering

A deputy speaker of Ukraine's legislature slammed the presence of a Russian delegate at a global parliamentarians' gathering Tuesday, rejecting a call for the two sides to meet.

Host nation Switzerland allowed Russia's participation at the conference in Geneva despite sanctions, with Valentina Matviyenko, president of the upper house of Russia's Federal Assembly, attending.

Olena Kondratiuk, a deputy speaker of Ukraine's parliament, said she was "shocked" that the Russian delegation was in Geneva.

"Sanctioned individuals cannot freely attend international gatherings!" she wrote on Facebook, referring to measures imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine since 2014.

The two took part in the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, more than three years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), convening the three-day gathering, had urged the two sides to meet, to no avail.

"We, as the global convenor of parliaments, would encourage such a meeting because we are built on dialogue," said IPU secretary-general Martin Chungong.

He told reporters that the IPU had a taskforce for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, and "at least the two sides are talking to the IPU".

Kondratiuk however urged "the participants of the Speakers' Conference to boycott any public events" involving Matviyenko.

"Any joint photo or handshake with her means siding with the aggressor," she said.

Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of Britain's lower House of Commons, told the opening session: "We mustn't forget to remind Russia: it is wrong to illegally occupy and attack a sovereign country."

Founded in 1889, the IPU promotes peace, democracy and human rights through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue.

During the opening event Tuesday, 80-year-old US actor Michael Douglas -- a UN Messenger of Peace since 1998 -- warned: "Right now the world is more dangerous than at any point in my lifetime."

"Nations are spending more and more on machines of war, and less and less on the people they're purporting to protect," the "Wall Street" star said, lamenting that inequality within and between countries was widening.

"Money has corrupted politics and now what once felt like a uniquely American problem has taken root elsewhere."