On 19 December 2018, during the interactive dialogue on Ukraine, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore presented to the Human Rights Council the 24^thprogressive report on the human rights situation in our country.

K. Gilmore drew the attention of the delegations to the situation around the events of 25 November in the Kerch Strait, and to the obstacles created by the Russian aggression for the freedom of navigation in the Sea of Azov, as well as to the impact of those events on the respect for human rights. Particular attention was paid to the processes related to the unification of Ukrainian churches and obtaining the autocephaly.

In his statement  Yurii Klymenko, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine at Geneva, noted that the Russian Federation, as the occupying state is responsible for numerous violations of human rights on the territory of Ukraine. Killings, arbitrary detentions, tortures, persecutions are just fragments of the overall picture of human rights abuses in the occupied areas of Crimea and Donbas. Recently, the Russian Federation has once again demonstrated flagrant disregard for the international law and human life by an armed attack on the Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea on 25 November.

Ukraine demands, Y. Klymenko emphasized, that the aggressor state abides by the norms of the International humanitarian law and treats the captured Ukrainian servicemen humanely and in full compliance with the Third Geneva Convention of 1949. 

"We insist on the full implementation of the provisions of the UN General Assembly resolutions regarding the unhindered access for the international monitoring to Crimea," he said.

The Permanent Representative assured that the Government of Ukraine will take all possible measures to ensure the protection of rights and religious freedoms of the citizens and to prevent any provocations or violence in the context of the unification of Ukrainian Orthodox churches.

Overall 32 delegations of the UN member states, the European Union and non-governmental international organizations took part in the interactive dialogue. In their statements, the overwhelming majority of delegations reiterated their support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and demanded that the Russian Federation unconditionally complies with the international law and immediately releases the Ukrainian sailors.