The European Parliament, one of three legislative branches of the European Union, on Tuesday asked for Ukraine’s inclusion in the bloc. It also demanded the EU to impose ‘tougher sanctions’ on Russia. 

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Adopting a resolution to get Ukraine the status of a EU candidate country, the European Parliament said called on the bloc to support the Eastern Europe country that has been under Russian attack since six days. 

The resolution was voted in favor by 637 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It condemned ‘Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and demands that the Kremlin end all military activities in the country’. 

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The members further stated that all Russian banks should be blocked from the European financial system and Russia should be banned from the SWIFT system. 

SWIFT is the abbreviation for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is being considered a secure international banking system to send and receive payments from another country, making international trade swift and easy. 

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“While welcoming the swift adoption of EU sanctions, MEPs want to see broader restrictive measures aimed at strategically weakening the Russian economy and industrial base. In particular, imports of the most important Russian export goods, such as oil and gas should be restricted, they say. New EU investment in Russia and new Russian investment in the EU should be banned,” the European Parliament’s press release said.

The MEPs asked EU members to send defensive weapons to Ukraine more swiftly. 

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Meanwhile,  Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-biggest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower in what the country’s president called a blatant campaign of terror.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after the bloodshed on the square in Kharkiv.