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Russia urges UN to help release rights activist Berezhnaya, detained by Kiev

Activist Yelena Berezhnaya became popular in 2014, when she openly spoke against the Kiev regime’s repressive policies, persecution of priests and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and glorification of neo-Nazism in Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS, January 18. /TASS/. Russia is calling upon the United Nations to provide active assistance to efforts to release human rights activist Yelena Berezhnaya, held in custody in Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said.

"Ukrainian rights activist Yelena Berezhnaya who had spent 8 years studying and documenting the evolvement of neo-Nazism in Ukraine and addressed the Security Council in March last year, was arrested by Ukrainian special services and still remains in custody on absurd charges of state treason. We repeatedly drew the attention of the Secretary-General and Security Council to this egregious case. We call on the UN leadership to step in and help set her free," he told Tuesday’s session of the UN Security Council, initiated by Russia to discuss human rights in Ukraine.

Nebenzya went on to say that "in the territories controlled by [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s regime, mass political repressions, detentions of civil activists and rights advocates are in full swing."

"Any expression of disagreement with the official position is extirpated," he added.

Activist Yelena Berezhnaya became popular in 2014, when she openly spoke against the Kiev regime’s repressive policies, persecution of priests and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and glorification of neo-Nazism in Ukraine. She was detained by the Ukrainian authorities in March 2022.

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Ukraine Vasily Nebenzya

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