MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Karim Atassi, Acting Head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representation in Russia, praised the Russian authorities for the reception and accommodation of evacuated Donbass residents, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova told reporters on Wednesday.
"Today I had a telephone conversation with Karim Atassi, the acting head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Russia. Mr. Atassi said a very important thing to me, that what he saw with his own eyes should be assessed exclusively positively. The state does so much for the evacuees from the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics," Moskalkova stressed.
This is how, according to her, Atassi described his impressions of his recent trip to the Rostov Region, where he visited transit points and temporary shelters for Donbass evacuees.
The press service of the human rights commussioner noted that the parties agreed on future close cooperation in the protection of refugee rights, including the protection of the most vulnerable categories of evacuees: women and children.
On Friday, February 18, the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of republics residents to the territory of Russia, in particular to the Rostov Region, due to the growing threat of hostilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics, made a decision to conduct a special military operation. He stressed that Moscow's plans did not include occupation of Ukrainian territories; the goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country.