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Moscow hopes Ukraine will stop aggressive actions against Russia — foreign ministry

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it considers the recent incident in the Sea of Azov as "a deliberate provocation"

The Russian Foreign Ministry Valery Sharifulin/TASS

The Russian Foreign Ministry

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

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MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Moscow hopes Ukraine’s authorities will finally stop aggressive actions against Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday following the publication of a report of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

"We hope that Ukraine’s leaders will finally heed the voice of reason and stop deliberate aggressive actions against Russia. We consider the recent incident in the Sea of Azov as a deliberate provocation," the foreign ministry said. "We call on the Ukrainian government to be guided by the provisions of the Russian-Ukrainian agreement on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait."

Moscow condemns martial law imposed in Ukraine under an invented pretext and deems it inadmissible to "violate the rights and freedoms of people in political and electoral interests of the current authorities," the ministry stressed.

"Once again, we have to stress that the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine is not mandated to consider situations in third countries," the ministry noted. "The Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol are part of Russia and another attempt to include the assessment of the human rights situation in these Russian regions in the report on Ukraine is illegitimate."

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Foreign policy Ukraine Russian Foreign Ministry Human rights

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