In Finland, during Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit, they wanted to fine the car of a Ukrainian diplomat
During the official visit of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to Finland, there was an incident involving the parking of the car of the Ukrainian delegation, which attracted the attention of the Finnish media. One of the diplomatic cars with Ukrainian license plates parked in a prohibited place in the center of Helsinki, because of which the inspectors issued a fine for violating traffic rules. This case was reported by the publication Helsingin Sanomat and Evening newspaper.
It is noted that this is a car with diplomatic license plates CD-6201, registered to the Ukrainian embassy in Helsinki. The car was parked directly in front of the University of Helsinki building, where parking is prohibited. Local journalists even published photos of a car with a fine receipt left under the windshield wiper.
However, later it was decided to cancel this fine. As explained by the head of the appeals and sanctions department for payment violations of Helsinki, Paulina Sundkvist, she personally made the decision to cancel the fine. At the same time, the Ukrainian embassy did not request to cancel the administrative penalty.
Sundqvist noted that the parking attendants did not take into account all the circumstances of the situation when making the decision, although the inspector acted in accordance with the instructions given to him. Later, it turned out that the police were also present at the scene when the diplomatic car was parked. According to Sundquist, the law enforcement officers would certainly have intervened in the situation if the parking had really constituted a violation that required an immediate response.
The representative of the authorities separately emphasized that the cancellation of the fine is in no way related to the fact that it is about the Ukrainian delegation or Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine. According to her, the incident is simply an “unpleasant and unfortunate situation” that has no political overtones.
“We are very sorry if the representatives of President Zelensky got the impression that this was some kind of political gesture. Parking inspectors are far from always able to identify exactly who the car belongs to.” Sundqvist emphasized.
Finnish mass media add that cases of fines for diplomatic cars in Helsinki are not isolated. In particular, last year vehicles of the Ukrainian embassy received six fines for violating parking rules. Two of them were paid by the Ukrainian side, one more was contested.
The papers explain that while diplomatic vehicles are immune, this does not apply to parking fines, as such fines are administrative, not criminal. At the same time, Finnish legislation does not allow these fines to be forcibly collected from diplomatic missions. Therefore, the decision whether to pay them or ignore them remains solely at the discretion of the respective embassy.
