MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Moscow calls on the Council of Europe to thoroughly monitor the situation in Ukraine in order to counter human rights violations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the Nicosia meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which involved Russian top diplomat Sergey Lavrov.

The Russian foreign minister "emphasized the need for the Council of Europe to employ all tools available in order to put an end to regular human rights violations in Ukraine and overcome the ongoing crisis the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been facing."

"This concerns not only minorities living in Ukraine, but also persons without citizenship in Latvia and Estonia," the statement reads. "Sergey Lavrov particularly pointed to the visa discrimination measures taken by some European Union member states against Russian citizens living in Crimea," the statement adds.