On June 18, 2020, the 43^rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) held an interactive dialogue on Ukraine, having discussed the 29^th report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in our country, including the situation in the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia, which was presented by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif.

While participating in the dialogue the Permanent Representative of Ukraine in Geneva Yurii Klymenko stressed on the continuous numerous human rights violations by the Russian occupation authorities in the Ukrainian territories of Donbas and in Crimea, having particularly drawn attention to the testimonies of victims of torture in the ‘Izoliatsiia” prison in Donetsk occupied by Russia, which were published in the annex to the aforementioned report. He also dwelt in detail on the situation of the indigenous inhabitants of the Crimean peninsula – Crimean Tatars – and illegal actions of Russia: changing the demographic structure in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, massive repressions, arrests, conscription of Ukrainian citizens to the Russian armed forces, illegal passportization. Under the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic, Russia not only fails to provide adequate protection for the population of the occupied territories, thus violating international humanitarian law, but also uses the situation to its advantage, seeking to lift the sanctions imposed on it as an occupying power.

Yurii Klymenko urged to hold Russia accountable for its illegal activities.

The messages made in the statement by the Permanent Representative were amplified by the video message of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova, who stressed that only after the complete
de-occupation of the Ukrainian territories it would be possible to ensure human rights thereon.

During the dialogue almost all of its 40 speakers expressed their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, condemning Russia’s violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the occupied Ukrainian territories, as well as calling for providing unhindered access thereto for international monitoring missions.

Yurii Klymenko resolutely protested against delivering the video message on behalf of the Russian delegation by an unidentified person, who spoke on behalf of the "people of Crimea" and who, as it later appeared, turned out to be Georgy Muradov, representative of the Russian occupation authority. The Permanent Representative of Ukraine emphasized that Russia had abused the hybrid format of the meetings of the 43^rd session of the Council, the rules of procedure and made yet another violation of the UN General Assembly resolutions “The Situation of Human Rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine”.