MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. An international tribunal of human rights activists and journalists will investigate Ukrainian nationalists’ actions and human rights abuse in Ukraine, the chairman of the coordinating council for public control of the voting process under Russia’s public chamber, Maxim Grigoryev, has said.
"There is a number of human rights activists and journalists in various countries who cooperate with us. Today I will take this opportunity to declare that we are creating an international non-governmental tribunal to examine these facts and, alongside the facts as such [actions by Ukrainian nationalists] we will consider the question of responsibility," Grigoryev said at a round-table meeting at the Public Chamber’s office on Tuesday.
Grigoryev said that public activists had already begun to interview witnesses and victims.
"All what a public inquiry can do is to provide the facts. The law enforcement bodies of the countries whose citizens were harmed will then be able to take action," he said, adding that for the past eight years the Western mass media have kept quiet about human rights and freedom of speech violations in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 launched a special military operation in Ukraine following a request for assistance from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He said Moscow had no plans for occupation of Ukrainian territories. The Russian Defense Ministry says its forces are not attacking cities. Their focus is entirely on military infrastructures. The civilian population is not in danger. The United States, the European Union, Britain, and a number of other countries said they were taking sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.