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Russian human rights council not invited to Russia-Ukraine meeting of ombudspersons

Russia’s human rights ombudsperson Ella Pamfilova plans to have a meeting with Verkhovna Rada’s human rights ombudsperson Valeria Lutkovskaya and representatives of the UN in Ukraine's Kharkiv on June 13

Russia’s human rights ombudsperson Ella Pamfilova ITAR-TASS/Zurab Dzhavakhadze

Russia’s human rights ombudsperson Ella Pamfilova

© ITAR-TASS/Zurab Dzhavakhadze

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MOSCOW, June 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s presidential Human Rights Council has not received an invitation to a meeting of Russian and Ukrainian ombudspersons due in Kharkiv on June 13.

“On June 13 in Kharkiv (Ukraine), Russia’s human rights ombudsperson Ella Pamfilova plans to have a meeting with Verkhovna Rada’s human rights ombudsperson Valeria Lutkovskaya and representatives of the UN,” the website of the Russian ombudsperson reported on Wednesday. “The main topics on the agenda will be cooperation between the sides and monitoring the situation with human rights in Ukraine’s south-eastern regions.”

“I have not received any invitations to the meeting,” said a member of the Russian presidential Council Elizaveta Glinka (known as Doctor Liza), who had several times visited Ukraine’s south-east. “This meeting is very important, it was expected the Ukrainian and Russian human rights experts could discuss the possible release of war prisoners,” she said.

Maxim Shevchenko, head of the Council’s temporary working group on monitoring human rights situation in Ukraine, and Ella Polyakova, a member of the Russian Council, said neither of them had received invitations to the negotiations.

The initiators of the meeting between two ombudspersons were Russian human rights experts.

“We suggested organizing a joint working group to operate in Ukraine and to have representatives of respected international organizations there,” Ella Polyakova, a member of the Russian Council, said.

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Ukraine Human rights Ella Pamfilova

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