35^th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 4

General debate

 

Statement by Permanent Representative of Ukraine Ambassador

Yurii Klymenko

 

June 15, 2017

 

Mr. President,

 

We once again draw attention to the continuing shameful practice of using Ukrainians as hostages of the Russian Federation`s aggressive policy against my country. At least 44 of them are still imprisoned despite the repeated calls by Ukraine and the international community demanding their immediate release. Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians are primary targets of Russia`s assault on any dissent and are victims of ethnic discrimination.

They continue to be arrested, kidnapped and tortured in occupied Crimea and Russia while this state keeps ignoring its obligations under the Minsk agreements on the exchange of hostages and illegally detained persons by the principle "all for all".

 For Russia, these people are bargaining chips, hostages whom it uses for its own purposes.

For Ukraine, they are citizens whose rights are brutally violated by the aggressor state, whose lives are in danger, and whose families, including children, are left behind.

We call on the UN member states and international organizations to take further steps to increase pressure on the Russian Federation in order to release all Ukrainian citizens imprisoned by this state “for political reasons”. More information can be found on a website called “Let My People Go” that monitors their cases.

Thank you.