Mr. President,

My delegation requested the floor to reply to the statement made by the Russian Federation.

But, first of all, I would like to thank the delegations who took the floor today for supporting Ukraine`s integrity and the Ukrainian people.

The so-called “Crimea referendum” was a political farce orchestrated by the Russian Federation.

Neither Ukraine nor the international community has recognized it.

We will be unrelenting in pursuit of restoring Crimea’s legitimate status as an integral part of Ukraine, protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country within the existing borders in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Final Act.

We urge the Russian Federation to stop flagrant violations of human rights on the occupied territory of Crimea and put an end to destabilization in Southern and Eastern Ukraine.

Mr. President,

Completely ignoring the world opinion with regard to quasi-referendum the Russian authorities recognized the Republic of Crimea as an independent state while number of reported cases of violations of human rights of population of Crimea, in particular, the Crimean Tatars, is growing.

Commenting recent visit to Ukraine of the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, the Russian Federation reminded “of guarantees the authorities of Crimea provide and will keep providing in the future to the Crimean Tatar minority”.

Perhaps, blatant evidence of such “guarantees” caused denial of Mr.Simonovich’s access to Crimea that nevertheless did not prevent his assessment of the situation there, according to which “appears to be no rule of law at present, and therefore a drastic deterioration in the protection of human rights”.

The UN official was also informed about cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, and other human rights violations committed by members of unidentified armed groups. He noticed that because of rampant fear and insecurity many people including Crimean Tatars, Russians and Ukrainians chose to leave the peninsula in this troubled time.

And they are those who really experience the moral sufferings, on which stressed upon the Russian delegate. In this regard, I do not even speak about the right to free access to objective information in the circumstances of blocking all Ukrainian channels in Crimea. So, today we have faced once again a blatant distortion by the Russian representative of the real facts to justify military intervention to the sovereign territory of Ukraine.

On the request by the Government of Ukraine a short-term UN human rights monitoring mission will be sent to Crimea and to other regions to evaluate the human rights situation on the ground.

And I wonder, to what extent predictable and objective could be evaluation by the Russian authorities of this mission’s planned visit to Crimea, in case permitted at all. If – the same as for Mr. Simonovich’s mission, who would then be considered as more impartial and independent than the UN team?

Is that those “unbiased monitors” who have identified no violations at so-called Crimea referendum?

But that’s obviously a rhetorical question indeed.

I thank you, Mr. President.