On February 13 Yurii Klymenko, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine in Geneva, met with Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The recent agreements upon the negotiations in Minsk in "Normand format" were discussed. Their urgency was noted in terms of achieving and keeping a ceasefire, saving human lives and release of all the hostages and those illegally detained. The importance of proper implementation of the agreements by all the parties involved was underlined.

Y.Klymenko called upon the High Commissioner to continue paying significant attention to the human rights situation in Ukraine, in particular with regard to addressing the illegal detention by the occupation authorities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea of A.Ciygoz, the Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis on January 29, 2015, as well as assisting in releasing N.Savchenko, Ukraine`s Member of Parliament, Member of Ukraine`s PACE delegation, and other Ukrainian citizens illegally detained on the territory of the Russian Federation. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, on his part, assured that his Office would monitor closely the development of the situation with N.Savchenko and A.Ciygoz.

Y.Klymenko and Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein also discussed the current issues with regard to the activities of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, drafting the national human rights strategy in Ukraine, as well as to the preparation for the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council to be held in March.