Ukraine in OSCE urges Russia to stop repressions in Crimea

"On Tuesday, the Russian occupying forces served fake charges on Crimean Tatar lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, who works tirelessly providing legal assistance to dozens of victims of the Russian occupation regime. We call on Russia to end its repressive policies and fulfill its obligations, being an occupying state, under the international humanitarian law and human rights standards," Ihor Prokopchuk, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, said at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Addressing the delegations of the OSCE member states, Prokopchuk asked them not to allow the Russian Federation to divert attention from the grave consequences of Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea.

"The Russian security services and law enforcement agencies continue a campaign of persecutions and intimidation," he said.

“We call on the Russian Federation to stop its illegal occupation of Crimea and stop the aggression against Ukraine, to withdraw its military formations from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and fulfill its obligations under the Minsk agreements,” the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna added.

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