38^th session of the UN Human Rights Council

Agenda item 4 General debates

Intervention by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine,

Ambassador H.E. Mr. Yurii Klymenko

(27 June 2018)

Mr. President,

Today’s agenda item is extremely important and shows how much more needs to be done in different parts of the world to protect human rights. Against this backdrop, we would like to draw special attention to the actions of the Russian Federation, which neglects the UN Charter, GA resolutions and even ICJ’s orders and has committed grave human rights violations in the occupied territories – both in Ukraine and Georgia.

During the undeclared war against my country, the Russian forces and Russia-led illegal armed groups killed more than 10 thousand people, and forced close to 2 million Ukrainians into displacement, most of them as IDPs in Ukraine. They have been perpetrating horrific acts of terrorism against civilians, depriving people of their basic right – the right to life.

This August we will commemorate the sad anniversary of the Ilovaisk tragedy. There, in 2014, the Russian military cynically shot, at point-blank range, the encircled Ukrainian troops while crossing the so-called green corridor, despite the assurances by Russia that they would be able to leave this corridor safely.

In the illegally occupied Crimea, Russia maintains a policy of racial discrimination and cultural erasure directed against those ethnic communities who dared to oppose the peninsula’s illegal occupation. 

Russia applies there not only its law but also totalitarian methods it practices at home. Just like last month’s brutal attacks by the Kremlin regime's Cossack paramilitary units and police against Russian peaceful protesters in Moscow and other cities across Russia. Detentions and arrests of more than 1,600 people is a further evidence of the shameful state policy of suppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Russia.

Some 70 Ukrainian citizens are currently in Russian captivity as hostages on politically motivated charges; they are subjected to ill-treatment and torture, and denied their right to a fair trial. Let me once again draw the attention of this Council to the fate of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who is unlawfully imprisoned in Russia on the fake charges of terrorism. He has been on a hunger strike since 14 May, demanding to release the Ukrainian political prisoners held by Russia.

It is critical to make sure that the situations of occupation and glaring human rights violations in Russia-occupied territories do not escape the constant attention of the international community.

We firmly believe that the issue of the Russian Federation should be on the agenda item 4 of the HRC.

I thank you.