MOSCOW, September 30. / TASS /. Russia shares the concerns of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) amid the aggravating situation regarding respect for human rights, Spokeswoman for Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
"We are highly concerned about the large-scale human rights violations in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities: discrimination, hate statements, violence, growing inequality, infringement of the rights of the elderly and disabled as well as national minorities," the diplomat stated. "The HRMMU continues to record attacks and threats against representatives of national minorities, journalists, human rights defenders, civil and political activists, including those criticizing the Ukrainian government’s nationalist initiatives such as the inconsistent law on the state language," Zakharova noted.
The Russian diplomat said that the growing ceasefire violations and strikes on civilian infrastructure, electricity and water supply facilities educational institutions, over 80% of which are located in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics, also raised significant concern. "In this regard, as the HRMMU mentioned in its report, the Donbass residents are again subjected to psychological suffering brought by the resumption of hostilities," according to Zakharova.
Furthermore, as the diplomat stated, the social and economic rights of the Donbass residents can hardly be exercised due to restrictions on movement, while the pressure on the media continues to surge <…>. "We also note that, according to the HRMMU report, the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are facing violence and oppression."
The Russian diplomat emphasized that all these facts once again demonstrated Kiev’s inability to take effective measures to improve the human rights situation <…>. "The UN mission regularly calls on Kiev to adopt a law on national minorities to protect language rights of Ukraine’s people. We hope that Kiev will finally listen to the recommendations of the HRMMU, as well as the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, and revise its approaches towards different nationalities living in Ukraine," Zakharova concluded.