UNITED NATIONS, May 25. /TASS/. Ukraine made no progress so far in investigations of numerous killings of journalists, while Western nations prefer to turn a blind eye to this fact, Russian representative to the UN Fedor Strzhizhovsky has said.
"Today many talked upon the allegedly guaranteed safety of journalists in Ukraine. Of course, we understand, that today’s Western world can either speak well of Ukraine or not speak at all. But there must be limits to this 'eyewashing' after all," he told an informal Arria formula meeting of UN Security Council member states, headlined ‘Protection of Journalists.’ "We remind that Ukraine had ceased to be safe for journalists, especially those opposed to Ukrainian authorities, long before our special military operation started. Alongside with attempts to tighten up on censorship, Ukrainian human rights organizations recorded repeated cases of extreme right activists blocking TV channels that the Kiev authorities did not welcome."
According to the diplomat, numerous cases of intimidating correspondents and obstructing their professional activity have been taking place in Ukraine, with total permissiveness of Ukrainian law enforcement.
"Starting from 2014, more than 20 journalists have died in Ukraine. This happened against the backdrop of an armed conflict in Donbas that the West tries to not notice. Among those cases - killings of photo-correspondent Andrei Stenin, cameraman Anatoly Klyan, publicist Oles Buzina, photographer Andrea Rocchelli, journalist Pavel Sheremet, correspondent Igor Kornelyuk, sound engineer Anton Voloshin and others," Strzhizhovsky said.
"Unfortunately, there has been no progress in investigating those murders and most cases of violence, to say nothing of violations of freedom of media. It’s a pity that no one had enough courage to touch upon this episode during today’s Arria meeting," he added.