UNITED NATIONS, March 07, /ITAR-TASS/. Russia hopes that UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and UN Human Rights Commissioner Ivan Simonovic, currently in Ukraine, will persuade the authorities in Kiev to investigate reports concerning snipers thought to be responsible for several deaths on Kiev’s streets during the recent unrest, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin told the media on Thursday.

“I hope that Mr. Simonivic and also Mr Eliasson will be able to encourage such an investigation,” Churkin said. He voiced the hope that Simonivic during his visit to Ukraine would meet with people who would outline their understanding of the human rights situation in the country.”

According to a leaked conversation between Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and EU foreign policy chief Catherin Ashton, which emerged online last Wednesday, Ukrainian medics who had examined the bodies of those killed, both police and civilians, during unrest in central Kiev, arrived at some stunning conclusions.

In part, Paet said, "there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”

“I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting,” Ashton answered.