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Russian White Book on human right abuses in Ukraine presented in Prague

Key charges relate to killings of civilians in Ukraine’s east, and events in Mariupol, where Ukrainian forces fired from armored vehicles on those rallying to honour World War II Victory Day
Site of clashes in Mariupol (archive) ITAR-TASS/Konstantin Sazonchik
Site of clashes in Mariupol (archive)
© ITAR-TASS/Konstantin Sazonchik

PRAGUE, March 13. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s White Book on violation of human rights in Ukraine, translated into Czech, was presented in capital Prague on Friday.

"The decision to translate into Czech and publish in Prague the book, thoroughly prepared by the Russian Foreign Ministry, came as there is no complete and true information about atrocities in Ukraine," said Robert Vinogradov, co-chairman of the public organization True Friends of Russia.

The book published in 1,000 copies will be circulated among public organisations, civil activists and rank-and-file citizens seeking to get unbiased information on the events in Ukraine.

The organization defrayed the cost of translation, publication and circulation of the White Book. "We haven’t received a single koruna for these aims," Vinogradov said. The organization hopes to raise some money, which will be channeled into orphanages in Ukraine’s embattled Donbass.

The White Book's content is based on information from Russian, Ukrainian and Western media sources, statements by representatives of current authorities in Kiev and their supporters, eyewitness accounts and on-the-spot observations and interviews of non-commercial Russian organizations.

Its purpose, say the authors, is to provide a public account of events, helping to form non-politicised, unbiased assessments and calling to account those responsible for violations.

Key charges relate to killings of civilians in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and events in Mariupol, where Ukrainian forces fired from armored vehicles on those rallying to honour World War II Victory Day.

Accounts also record a massacre in the southern city of Odessa, where dozens died in a fire after clashes of Ukrainain nationalists and federalization supporters.

Illegal arrests are noted of Russian television journalists Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko, detained by Ukraine’s National Guard near the city of Kramatorsk, and the killing of TV cameraman Anatoly Klyan in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.