MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday said Western non-governmental organizations have to concede, albeit reluctantly, that Ukrainian forces commit war crimes.
She was referring to a report by Human Rights Watch that said Ukrainian forces used the anti-personnel landmine known as Lepestok, or the Butterfly mine.
"It’s remarkable that the war crimes by the Kiev regime have now been acknowledged even by Western non-governmental organizations, with reluctance, unwillingly, endlessly including statements in all their press releases that ‘Russia is doing the same,’" she said at a news conference. "Even Human Rights Watch is forced to concede that the Kiev regime is overstepping all boundaries."
Zakharova said Russia’s envoy to the UN Vasily Nebenzya mentioned the use of the mines before. "Even Human Rights Watch has said that now. Maybe, it makes sense to say that Russia is ultimately right? As long as what has been said at the UNSC by the Russian envoy has been confirmed in reports of the organizations that have never been accused of liking us, maybe, it’s worth acknowledging that the other facts that Russia has been talking about should also be taken into account?" she said.
Zakharova believes that Ukraine will not comply with the organization's call to investigate the use of anti-personnel mines. "There is an appeal to the Ukrainian government - I’m now talking about Human Rights Watch - to conduct a thorough investigation of all cases of the use of anti-personnel mines and return to compliance with the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, which Ukraine ratified in 2005. Will the call of the international organization to Ukraine be followed? There will never be any investigations simply because Kiev does only what the US tells it to do," the diplomat said.