Slovak MEPs Condemn Colleague Uhrik for Statements on War in Ukraine

Strasbourg, March 9 (TASR-correspondent) - A group of twelve Slovak MEPs from four EP factions on Wednesday signed a joint letter condemning statements made recently by Slovak MEP Milan Uhrik in the European Parliament as well as pieces of disinformation that he's been spreading on social networks. "It is with concern and shame that we observe the statements of Slovak MEP Milan Uhrik on the Russian aggression against Ukraine. In his speeches in the EP plenary and in his statements on social networks he repeatedly maintains that the world is subject to deceptive propaganda that is supplying the media with moving photographs from Ukraine. He accuses all those who report on the horrors of the war in Ukraine of engaging in tendentious and false propaganda," the open letter reads. The letter also states that when Uhrik spreads unsubstantiated doubts about the evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered war atrocities and speaks about the deceptive propaganda of the West, he's not only disgracing himself, but also the country he represents as an MEP, i.e. Slovakia. The signatories of the letter warned that Uhrik's statements were classified as disinformation, and as such are a security risk that could lead to unimaginable consequences in a war. Meanwhile, Uhrik has also been lambasted by European Commission Vice-president for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova, who, speaking in the EP in her native language of Czech so that Uhrik could understand her well, noted that the MEP has compared the EU to an Orwellian entity and has said that Europe is introducing censorship because several Russian media, such as Sputnik and Russia Today, have been banned in the EU. The letter was signed by MEPs Lucia Duris Nicholsonova, who initiated the letter, Martin Hojsik, Michal Simecka and Michal Wiezik (all Renew Europe), Monika Benova and Robert Hajsel (both Socialists and Democrats), Vladimir Bilcik, Miriam Lexmann, Peter Pollak and Ivan Stefanec (all European People's Party), Eugen Jurzyca (European Conservatives and Reformists), and Miroslav Radacovsky (Independents). zel/df